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M  Lessons 


IN 


dvertisin^  and  Sellin 


GUY  HIJBBART 


Advertising  and  Selling 


Each  of  these  lessons  is  suitable  for  school  use  and 
outlines  a  method  by  which  the  student  or  sales  person 
may  develop  his  or  her  ability  in  selling  a  special  type 
of  goods.  The  subject  matter  affords  a  practical  basis 
for  self  improvement  along  general  lines  of  retail 
salesmanship. 


By 

GUY    HUBBART 

Columbia  University  School  of  Business 

Retail  Advertising  and  Sales  Expert 

"The  Dry  Goods  Economist"  and  "Atlantic  Coast  Merchant' 


Reprinted  from 
Atlantic  Coast  Merchant 


NEW  YORK 

U.  p.  C.  BOOK  COMPANY,  Inc. 

243-249  W.  39th  Street 


Copyright,  1921 

BY 

U.  P.  C.  BOOK  COMPAISTY,  Inc. 


HAMMOND  PRESS 
W.    B.  CONKEY  COMPAI 
CHICAGO 


Foreword 

llyTE.  HUBBART,  the  author  of  this  book,  is  so  well  known  as  an 
authority  in  the  field  of  advertising  and  salesmanship,  that  he 
needs  little  introduction  to  any  person  engaged  in  either  of  these  two 
professions.  As  an  educator  it  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  he  has 
taught  more  young  men  and  women  the  fundamentals  of  advertising 
and  selling  than  any  other  teacher  in  the  United  States.  As  chief  in- 
sti-uctor  in  Columbia  University  School  of  Business,  Mr.  Hubbart  has 
personally  trained  more  than  2,400  salesmen  and  sales  managers,  and 
his  success  has  been  in  a  large  part  due  to  the  fact  that  his  knowledge  of 
his  two  chosen  subjects  was  learned  through  practical  experience.  He  is 
a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Illinois  and  entered  the  advertising  field 
on  leaving  college  because  of  a  genuine  love  for  the  work.  It  was  for 
this  reason  that  he  rapidly  forged  to  the  front  and  in  a  very  brief  time 
became  advertising  manager  for  one  of  the  best  known  stores  in  the 
Middle  West.  His  reputation  as  an  advei-tising  man  and  sales  execu- 
tive grew  rapidly,  and  for  many  years  he  was  employed  as  an  expert 
adviser  by  some  of  the  most  famous  stores  in  the  country. 

As  a  teacher,  Mr.  Hubbart  originated  and  developed  the  ''Idea- 
and-merchandise "  method  which  is  now  in  use  in  virtually  every  im- 
portant business  school  in  the  United  States. 

The  major  portion  of  the  subject  matter  of  this  hand-book  orig- 
inally appeared  as  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Atlantic  Coast  Merchant. 
It  has  been  amplified  in  several  important  respects  and  published  in 
book  form  in  response  to  the  demand  of  several  hundred  merchants, 
advertising  men  and  salesmen  who  wished  to  use  it  for  their  own 
guidance  and  for  educational  purposes. 

The  Publisher. 


3 


490303 


Table  of  Contents 


LESSON   I 

Ideas  Make  Retail  Advertisements  Productive 9 

Customers  read  store  copy  because  it  tells  something  interest- 
ing about  merchandise — the  user's  mind  is  the  source  of 
ideas,  and  ideas  are  based  on  goods. 

LESSON   II 

Copy  Is  the  Adman  's  Message  to  Customers 13 

Headlines,  sub-captions,  introductories  and  descriptive  items 
carry  the  message  to  readers — they  must  be  built  on  the 
main  idea  of  the  advertisement. 

LESSON   III 

Subject  Matter  Is  Drawn  from  Departments 16 

All  the  material  used  by  the  adman  in  making  his  message  to 
customers  has  its  source  in  the  goods  carried  in  each  depart- 
ment advertised — other  lines  are  suggested. 

LESSON    IV 

Have  an  Architectural  Plan  for  Layout 19 

Physical  form  has  an  influence  on  the  stimulative  and  attrac- 
tion value  of  our  advertisement — schedule  is  influenced  by 
lines  of  goods  on  sale. 

LESSON   V 

Collecting  Material  for  the  Ad  Is  Important 23 

Everything  in  the  advertisement  comes  from  a  definite  place 
in  the  store  and  for  a  special  reason — care  and  judgment 
are  necessary  to  good  results. 

LESSON   VI 

Advertising  Ought  to  Run  on  Regular  Schedule 27 

Dates  for  planned  advertisements  are  made  from  conditions  in 
stores'  stocks  of  goods  and  seasons — the  schedule  is  influ- 
enced by  lines  of  goods  on  sale. 

LESSON   VII 

Make  the  Adv:ertisement  Fit  Its  Purpose 30 

Different  kinds  of  merchandising  require  different  kinds  of 
advertisements — the  advertisement  is  not  the  event,  it  only 
herald's  the  store's  selling  program. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

LESSON   VIII 

Use  Special  Advertisements  for  Special  Occasions 33 

What  a  store  offers  for  sale  is  influenced  by  reasons  not  always 
linked  with  the  goods — base  the  message  on  a  sensible  reason 
easily  understood  by  customers. 

LESSON   IX 

Clearance  Sales  Need  Careful  Treatment 35 

The  public  will  respond  to  special  values  only  when  specialized 
interest  is  created  by  what  appears  in  the  advertisement 
— three  elements  are  necessary. 

LESSON   X 

Goodwill  Advertisements  Pay  the  Most 38 

Extra  values  for  the  money  or  less  money  for  the  value  is  the 
foundation  of  store  prestige  advertising — customers  are 
loyal  only  in  terms  of  money's  worth. 

LESSON   XI 

Season  Advertising  Is  Founded  on  Store  News 41 

Customers  like  to  know  what  the  store  has  to  sell  and  how  it  fits 
the  time  of  year — season  copy  can  be  made  interesting. 

LESSON   XII 
Complete  Publicity  in  Stores  Is  Threefold 44 

Advertisements  ought  to  be  combined  with  window  displays 
and  show  cards — each  is  an  incomplete  form  of  message,  but 
all  combined  makes  a  complete  appeal. 

LESSON   XIII 

Everyone  Has  Something  to  Buy 46 

Salesmanship  begins  with  the  customer's  need  for  goods  be- 
cause the  purchaser's  interest  in  what  she  buys  begins  there 
— study  why  people  want  goods,  not  why  they  buy. 

LESSON   XIV 

Good  Selling  Demands  Good  Thinking 48 

Sales  are  made  in  the  customer's  mind  and  in  terms  of  the 
goods  she  contemplates  buying — make  the  customer  act  by 
making  her  think  in  your  favor. 

LESSON   XV 

Every  Sale  Implies  a  Human  Want 50 

Wants  reflect  needs  for  goods  and  represent  a  certain  type  of 
need — good  salesmanship  requires  an  acquaintance  mth  why 
customers  have  wants. 

6 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS 

LESSON   XVI 

Study  Merchandise  While  Selling  It 52 

Success  in  salesmanship  comes  with  knowledge  of  what  mer- 
chandise means  to  those  whom  you  serve — study  in  a  sys- 
tematic way  every  day. 

LESSON   XVII 

Everyone  Has  Something  to  Sell 54 

Merchandise  is  classified  finally  by  the  use  to  which  it  is  put  by 
the  purchaser — salespeople  improve  in  service  when  they 
realize  this  fundamental  idea. 

LESSON(  XVIII 

Wants  Give  Customers  the  Buying  Impulse 56 

Salespeople  need  to  understand  the  csutomer's  trains  of 
thought  about  goods — the  customer  has  a  viewpoint  entirely 
different  from  the  store's  idea  of  its  goods. 

LESSON   XIX 

How  TO  Group  People  's  Needs 58 

Four  sources  of  human  needs  for  goods  open  the  way  for  care- 
ful and  systematic  study  of  personal  salesmanship — goods 
do  not  create  wants  but  supply  them. 

LESSON   XX 

How  Goods  Are  Grouped  for  Use 60 

Good  service  is  dependent  on  the  ability  to  look  ahead  and  see 
the  customer  using  the  merchandise  you  are  selling  to  her 
or  him. 

LESSON   XXI 
Learn  to  Make  Rules  for  Yourself 62 

Use-value  is  the  element  in  goods  which  brings  people  back  to 
you  for  more  goods — repeat-sales  reduce  selling  expense  and 
build  volume. 

LESSON   XXII 

Why  Do  Women  Buy  Gloves? 64 

Every  item  of  merchandise  has  a  definite  selling  principle  be- 
hind it — salespeople  who  study  these  principles  always 
progress  to  better  positions. 

LESSON   XXIII 

A  Rule  for  Selling  Convenience  Goods 66 

A  simple  analysis  of  w^hat  an  alarm  clock  does  for  the  pur- 
chaser gives  the  groundwork  for  successful  selling  of  a  cer- 
tain type  of  merchandise — there  are  five  types. 

7  . 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

LESSON  xxrv 

Woolen  Underweak  and  Alarm  Clocks  Are  Unlike 68 

Bigger  sales  and  more  money  for  selling  comes  with  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  differences  between  different  items  of  goods  and 
systematic  study  brings  this  knowledge. 

LESSON   XXV 

Advertising  Is  a  Special  Ivind  of  Selling 69 

Salespeople  can  by  the  careful  study  of  advertising  develop  a 
special  kind  of  a])ility  in  selling  goods — advertising  and 
selling  principles  come  from  the  same  place. 

LESSON   XXVI 

Advertising  Copy  Is  Full  of  Salesmanship. 71 

Study  the  adman's  method  of  interesting  his  prospect  in  what 
he  has  to  sell,  then  apply  the  method  to  personal  salesman- 
ship— this  helps  you  to  understand  what  customers  think. 

LESSON   XXVII 

There  Are  Five  Elements  in  Advertising  Copy 73 

Every  completed  sale  can  be  reduced  to  the  five  elements  of  a 
forceful  advertisement — each  element  has  a  definite  influ- 
ence on  the  customer's  attitude. 

LESSON   XXVIII 

Personality  Is  the  Life  of  Advertisements 75 

Your  customer  is  affected  by  your  personality  if  you  reflect  it 
in  your  selling  method — the  purchaser  must  be  interested  in 
your  efforts  to  please  her. 

LESSON   XXIX 

Every  Item  of  Goods  Has  Five  Values 77 

There  are  five  steps  in  a  complete  sale  and  they  each  come 
from  something  expressed  in  the  origin  and  nature  of  the 
merchandise. 

LESSON   XXX 

Direct  Your  Efforts  Accurately 79 

Every  salesman  ought  to  be  able  to  analyze  the  steps  in  every 
sale  he  makes  in  terms  of  the  five  values  contained  in  an 
item  of  merchandise— study  one  item  at  a  time. 


LESSON  I 

Ideals  Make  Retail  Advertisements  Productive 

DRY  GOODS  store  advertising  is  improving  year  by  year  in  all  types 
of  stores.  This  improvement  is  due  in  part  to  a  better  understand- 
ing on  the  part  of  store  executives  of  the  value  of  good  advertising  as 
a  builder  of  business.  It  is  also  due  to  the  efforts  of  ad  men  to  turn 
out  better  looking,  better  sounding  store  messages  to  aid  customers  in 
finding  what  they  want  in  merchandise. 

The  ad  man  in  the  smaller  store  has  one  advantage  over  his  brother 
in  the  bigger  city  establishment  when  he  begins  to  study  how  to  make 
his  advertisements  pull  more  business.  He  can  profitably  study  the 
ads  of  other  stores  in  his  own  class  and  those  of  much  larger  institutions. 

Not  that  the  big  store  ad  man  can  learn  nothing  from  his  smaller 
store  brother,  but  that  the  latter  can  find  more  places  where  improve- 
ment is  needed  in  his  daily  or  semi-weekly  program.  And  it  is  easier 
to  apply  a  big-store  idea,  adapt  it  rather,  to  a  small  store  ad  than  the 
other  way  around.  This  is  because,  after  a  certain  point  of  excellence 
is  reached  in  the  big  stores'  method  of  advertising,  new  departures 
must  be  made  slowly. 

The  big  store  is  likely  to  have  better  newspaper  and  printing 
facilities,  better  illustrations  and  more  appropriation  to  spend  on  space 
and  composition.  While  the  small  store  may  have  good  methods  and 
policies,  its  mechanical  advantages  are  fewer  than  those  in  the  big  cities. 

Improvement  in  retail  advertising  can  be  made  in  four  general 
directions.  The  first  is  in  methods  of  telling  the  merchandising  message 
to  customers — ideas,  treatment  of  copy  and  the  general  introduction; 
the  second,  merchandising  the  advertisement — making  the  goods  pre- 
sented in  the  ad  fit  the  seasonal  needs  of  customers,  the  conditions  of 
stocks  and  volume  of  sales  in  the  store  and  the  general  needs  of  the 
special  clientele  to  which  the  store  caters;  third,  the  management  of 
cuts,  illustrations,  type  and  arrangement  of  material;  and  fourth,  the 
planning  of  space,  schedules  and  special  advertising  events. 

These  four  subjects  will  be  dealt  with  in  several  chapters  following 
in  the  order  mentioned. 

The  remainder  of  this  article  is  devoted  to  the  first  subject — 
methods  of  telling  the  store's  message  to  customers. 

Copy  the  message  of  the  store's  goods  and  values,  is  the  ad  man's 
first  thought.  Through  it  he  tells  customers  why  they  ought  to  buy 
this  or  that  item,  what  it  is  good  for,  its  value  in  money  and  its  use  as 

9 


10  .BB-:rA.IIj;:^DVEjR:TlSINa   AND   SELLING 

a  commodity.  lie  describes  the  goods,  tells  its  price  and  tries  to  arouse 
and  sustain  interest  in  the  special  item  or  items  of  goods  the  store 
offers  for  the  customers'  consideration  day  by  day. 

Two   Kinds  of  Copy 

Copy  is  of  two  kinds:  Stimulative  and  directive.  That  is,  it 
either  tries  to  interest  the  customer  in  buying  any  and  all  kinds  of 
goods  or  it  specializes  on  trying  to  get  her  to  buy  a  certain  thing  on 
a  certain  day.  Most  store  ads  do  both  of  these  things,  at  least  a  certain 
amount  of  the  copy  used  in  a  week  can  be  so  described. 

Whichever  is  the  purpose  of  the  copy  it  must  have  an  idea  in  it 
or  it  will  fail  in  part  of  its  aim.  The  idea  is  the  thing  that  fastens  the 
subject  matter  of  the  ad  to  the  customer's  interest.  Telling  all  about 
how  an  item  of  merchandise  looks,  its  price  and  where  to  find  it  in  the 
store  is  not  enough.  There  is  nothing  in  that  which  makes  the  customer 
say,  *'Yes,  that  is  what  I  want  and  that's  (your  store)  the  place  to  get 
it."  General  description  will  accomplish  the  first  five  words — ''That 
is  what  I  want,"  but  an  idea  only  will  accomplish  the  last  part  of  the 
sentence — "and  that's  the  place  to  get  it." 

What  is  the  use  of  advertising  anj^vay  if  your  store  does  not  get 
the  benefit  of  the  ad? 

Where  Ideas  Gome  From 

''Where  do  ideas  come  from?"  says  the  ambitious  ad  man.  The 
answer  is:  From  two  sources;  (1)  the  merchandise  and  (2)  the  mind 
of  the  average  customer.  Where  else  could  a  retail  advertising  idea 
come  from,  since  the  purpose  of  copy  is  to  tell  about  goods  the  customer 
needs  or  wants. 

Half  the  idea  is  drawn  from  the  goods,  the  other  half  from  what 
the  goods  mean  to  the  customer. 

For  example,  your  store  is  going  to  feature  a  certain  shoe  for 
men  next  week.  You  will  describe  the  shoe — the  kind  of  leather  it  is 
made  of ;  the  color ;  whether  lace  or  button ;  the  style  of  last ;  heel  and 
toe;  range  of  sizes  and  give  the  price.  All  that  is  drawni  from  the 
goods.  It  would  seem  that  that  is  all  you  would  need  to  say  about  it, 
and  it  would  be  enough  if  you  wanted  only  to  announce  that  you  have 
new  men's  shoes. 

But  you  want  to  interest  customers  in  that  shoe  from  their  own 
point  of  view  as  well  as  the  store's.  So,  you  can  go  further  in  copy 
than  the  mere  description.  You  can  suggest  that  the  shoe  appeals 
to  men  of  good  taste ;  that  it  looks  well  for  dress  or  street  wear ;  that 
those  especially  who  like  their  shoes  neat  and  smart  and  blend  well 
with  the  rest  of  what  is  worn  will  like  this  shoe.  In  other  words,  besides 
describing  the  material  points  of  the  shoe,  you  suggest  a  train  of 
thought  about  how  it  will  look  and  how  the  customers  will  feel  who  wear 
it.    You  give  the  prospective  customer  a  shoe  thought — a  shoe  idea. 


EETAIL   ADVERTISEMENTS   PRODUCTIVE 


11 


That  gives  your  shoe  copy  individuality  and  no  matter  how  many 
other  stores  in  town  sell  men's  shoes,  your  message  will  tell  the  story 
of  your  store's  goods.    This  is  true  of  any  other  items  in  stock — coats 


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and  suits,  njillinery,  underwear,  furniture,  fancy  goods  and  notions, 
domestics,  dress  goods  or  anything. 

Notice  the  advertisement  reproduced  in  the  center  of  this  page. 
It  is  the  ad  of  a  big  store  in  a  big  city,  but  it  is  about  something  many 
small  stores  sell — furniture  and  home  furnishings.  It  is  reproduced 
here  because  it  is  a  fine  example  of  copy  with  a  definite  and  suitable 


12  RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 

idea  in  it.    You  can  tell  this  by  reading  the  headline  of  each  section  of 
the  ad. 

"The  Hostess  takes  especial  pride  in  making  the  bedroom  attrac- 
tive," is  the  headline  of  the  section  dealing  with  bedroom  furniture 
and  furnishings.  Tlien  the  l)ody  of  the  copy  goes  on  to  tell  in  detail 
what  the  store  has  to  sell  and  why  it  has  it.  Also  it  speaks  of  the  use 
of  some  of  the  items.  The  ''Idea"  in  this  copy  is  plain.  It  is  in  the 
headline  and  gives  the  customer  a  definite  train  of  thought.  It  makes 
her  want  the  kind  of  bedroom  furniture  and  furnishings  described  even 
before  she  sees  them.  If  the  copy  had  consisted  only  in  descriptions 
such  as  size,  color,  and  price,  this  ad  would  sell  furniture  for  any  store 
in  the  city  where  the  ad  was  published.  As  it  is  it  directs  interest 
specifically  to  the  store  whose  name  is  signed  to  the  ad. 

His  Idea  from  Goods 

The  Hecht  Company  ad  man  got  his  idea  from  his  goods  and  from 
what  he  knew  the  people  who  needed  furniture  ought  to  want  to  think 
about  the  use  and  nature  of  the  goods. 

A  small  store  would  not  be  wise  to  use  so  much  space,  perhaps, 
as  was  used  in  this  ad,  and  if  its  furniture  did  not  look  like  the  illus- 
trations it  could  not  wisely  use  such  illustrations.  But  furniture  ideas 
are  the  same  no  matter  what  the  size  of  the  store,  so  any  store  selling 
furniture,  rugs,  draperies,  hangings,  etc.,  can  safely  put  ideas  in  its  copy. 

Ideas  give  life,  vigor  and  interest  to  othenvise  commonplace  facts. 
Look  for  ideas  by  studying  the  use  and  nature  of  your  goods.  Also 
by  reflecting  in  copy  what  any  customer  might  think. 


LESSON  II 
Copy  Is  the  Adman's  Message  to  Customers 

THE  first  lesson  of  this  series  dealt  with  ideas — advertising  ideas.  It 
pointed  out  that  ideas  formed  the  basis  of  copy  treatment.  An  idea 
is  simply  an  image,  a  viewpoint,  based  on  what  the  customer  needs  in 
the  way  of  merchandise  and  what  the  store  has  in  stock  that  can  supply 
that  need.  For  example,  a  shoe  advertising  idea  gives  the  customer 
a  reason  or  viewpoint  upon  which  to  base  his  or  her  interest  in  the  shoe. 

The  written  or  printed  matter  that  conveys  the  idea  is  called  copy. 
It  is  copy  when  it  leaves  the  store  for  the  printer.  It  is  copy  after  the 
printer  prints  it  in  advertising  form  in  the  newspaper.  The  word  copy 
covers  everything  in  the  advertisement  that  has  to  do  with  describing 
the  goods  except  the  illustrations. 

Copy  in  a  retail  advertisement  includes,  (1)  headlines,  sub-head- 
lines (captions  these  are  called  by  some  people),  (2)  introductory  mat- 
ter, whether  general  at  the  top  of  the  advertisement  or  specific  at  the  top 
of  the  merchandise  divisions  of  the  advertisement,  (3)  departmental 
headlines,  and  (4)  item  descrij^tions. 

To  separate  copy  from  the  rest  of  the  things  that  go  into  making 
the  advertisement  it  is  called  text.  In  fact,  the  text  means  what  the 
customer  reads.    It  is  the  ad  man's  copy,  but  the  customer's  text. 

Text  treatment  or  how  copy  is  written  is  very  important,  just  as 
important  as  the  wording  of  a  business  letter.  The  text  must  fit  the 
subject  matter  of  the  letter  or  the  advertisement.  One  would  hardly 
write  a  love  letter  in  the  formal  way  that  a  business  letter  is  written 
or  the  other  way  around.  One  would  not  write  about  a  purely  utility 
commodity  like  an  ice  chest  or  a  rolling  pin  the  way  he  would  write  of 
a  beautiful  rug,  a  piece  of  jewelry  or  an  exquisitely  designed  piece 
of  lace. 

The  same  thing  applies  in  a  general  way  to  different  departments 
in  the  store — ready-to-wear,  house  furnishings,  shoes,  millinery,  fancy 
goods,  toilet  goods  and  so  on.  Each  group  of  goods  means  a  specific 
thing  to  customers  and  copy  or  text  ought  to  fit  the  goods  and  demon- 
strate clearly  its  field  or  purpose. 

Copy  may  be  personal  or  impersonal;  it  may  be  put  in  terms  of 
fact  or  images ;  it  may  be  argumentative ;  reason- why  or  inspirational. 
These  are  merely  forms  of  written  expression. 

But  whichever  way  it  is  written,  text  ought  to  have  only  one  pur- 
pose; to  make  the  customer  want  your  goods. 

13 


14 


RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 


It  will  make  her  want  your  goods  if  it  is  clear,  direct,  simple,  inter- 
esting and  timely. 

Copy  will  be  all  of  these  tilings  if  it  tells  a  stoiy  of  the  goods, 
delivers  a  merchandising  message. 

Real   Copy  Analyzed 

Headlines,  introductory  matter,  sub-heads  and  items  are  well  illus- 
trated in  the  reproduction  on  this  page.  It  is  not  a  complete  ad,  but  a 
section  out  of  a  page  ad  of  a  big  store  in  a  big  city.    This  section  is 


THE  EVERYOVTHFUL  BLOOM  Of  SPRING  IS  REFLECTED  IN  THESE  CHARMING  PRESENTATIONS  OF 

jsses'  I 


A  prcMntation  of  radiantly  beautiful,  fashionjbly  corrccl  Spring  Apparel  for  tho»c  who  arc 
ready  foT  the  glorious  Springtime.  An  array  from  which  both  maid  vand  matron  may 
quickly  supply  their  acceascry  nce<Is.  Rest  assured  these  stylet  were  •elected  for  their 
beauty  and  correclneas  of  mode— Reasonnbl/  priced,  too. 

Spring  Dresses  of  Rare  Charm 


SPRINGTIME  Dt< 
Wh.K!  Hou-c,   F 


-Here  src  TalftU.  Ccorg, 
■  ftpe  And  Foulard — Spring  < 
n.   novxied  pillemj.   all  ai 

'  OOKINC  at  iKr.t  DrtMta  i 


al  Ihe  vtr 
-over  50' 
>.vc   n.odcl 


THESE  na' 
ol  <h;rr<  t 


•  100 


J9.50— are  no!  e.ptn.ive 
but  vary  aood  lookinj  and  .tyli.S.  Ceorgeltt 
Crepe — Crepe  de  Chme — and  Foulard  predom- 
inatea.       All    the    lateU    color,    and    <onei.    alio 


olfel 


Th,. 
we  have 

TF    Ihe 


n'^T.'Lt^,  fXQ.50 

ihown — at  %^  i^ 


wonderful— 
he«al  $65) 
York  buyer, 
■ely  in  Spring 


reproduced  because  it  contains  all  the  parts  of  an  ad  dealt  with  in  this 
article.  There  were  other  sections  showing  other  goods,  but  none  so 
complete  as  this  one. 

The  headline  of  the  ad  reads: 

^'Women's  and  Misses'  Apparel."  This  is  an  important  part  of 
the  copy  because  it  tells  at  a  glance  what  the  story,  the  message,  is 
about.    It  saves  the  reader's  time  and  energy  and  stimulates  interest. 

The  introductory  immediately  follows  the  main  headline.  It  en- 
larges on  the  idea  set  forth  in  the  headline ;  the  purpose  of  the  intro- 
ductory is  told  by  its  name:  it  introduces  to  the  customer  the  store's 
attitude  about  its  own  goods.  This  introductory  tells  how  beautiful, 
how  attractive  and  how  reasonably  priced  the  goods  on  sale  are  and 
how  large  an  assortment  there  is  to  choose  from. 

The  items — there  are  six  of  them — describe  the  goods  in  detail. 
This  is  the  important  part  of  retail  copy — the  part  that  really  sells  the 
goods.  All  other  parts  are  only  useful  in  so  far  as  they  help  to  center 
the  mind  of  the  reader  on  the  goods. 

In  a  small  store  this  section  would  make  a  complete  ad  for  ready- 
to-wear.     That  is,  it  would  attract  attention  to  the  store's  ready-to- 


COPY  IS   THE  ADMAN'S  MESSAGE  TO  CUSTOMERS     15 

wear  stocks  and  give  some  examples  of  the  goods.  There  are  six  items, 
descriptive  items.    Notice  how  they  are  written : 

The  first  one  tells  about  dresses.  It  tells  of  the  material  they  are 
made  of,  how  they  are  trimmed,  the  style,  the  colors  and  finally  the 
price. 

The  object  is  to  interest  women  in  the  store's  $25.00  dresses.  Other 
items  deal  with  other  dresses  at  other  prices.  But  every  item  has  the 
same  purpose — to  sell  the  dresses. 

Stores  in  small  towns  often  do  not  have  good  items  in  their  ad 
copy.  The  ad  man  either  writes  too  little  or  too  much  and  does  not 
put  the  important  selling  points  of  the  goods  into  the  items.  There 
is  no  excuse  for  this,  because,  even  if  printing  facilities  are  poor, 
writing  need  not  be  poor. 

There  are  fifty  words  in  the  first  item  and  every  word  counts 
because  it  makes  the  descriptions  of  the  goods  perfectly  clear.  Ten 
such  items  as  this  ought  to  make  a  good  ad  for  a  relatively  small  store. 
Of  course,  everything  in  the  stock  could  not  be  described  in  ten  items, 
but  no  one  would  read  all  the  items  anyway  if  everything  was  described. 
But  ten  typical  items  are  enough,  twenty  at  the  outside.  With  the  main 
head,  a  brief  introduction  and  a  cut  or  two  the  complete  ad  ought  to 
occupy  not  more  than  three  columns,  ten  inches  deep — thirty  news- 
paper inches. 

Make  the  headline,  introductory  and  subhead,  if  there  is  one,  lead 
directly  to  the  items.  If  they  do  not  help  to  make  the  items  do  their 
work  it  is  useless  to  use  them. 

Write  items  as  if  they  were  short  telegrams  directed  to  the  possible 
customers,  and  do  not  fill  them  full  of  generalities  as  some  ad  writers 
do.  Do  not  make  extravagant  claims  or  misleading  claims.  No  one 
believes  these  things  and  therefore  such  items  are  worse  than  useless. 

Tell  what  the  goods  are,  what  they  are  good  for,  their  price  and 
size  and  color  if  they  have  those  characteristics.  Of  course,  you 
wouldn't  write  a  descriptive  item  about  soap  or  a  frying  pan  or  a  fly- 
swatter  the  same  way  you  would  write  it  about  rugs,  lamps,  silks, 
laces  or  furniture.    But  the  purpose  is  the  same — to  describe  the  goods. 

If  you  are  writing  ads  for  a  store  in  a  small  town,  do  not  think 
you  are  to  imitate  the  one  reproduced  with  this  article.  It  is  the  ad 
of  a  big  city  store  where  special  types  are  obtainable,  good  illustrations- 
and  high  priced  goods  which  may  not  be  suited  to  your  trade.  But  the 
way  the  item  is  written  is  adaptable  to  the  needs  of  even  the  smallest 
store  that  advertises  at  all  because  the  item  is  simply  a  description  of 
the  goods.  People  do  the  same  thing  with  dresses  in  a  small  town 
that  they  do  with  them  in  a  big  town.  They  wear  them.  Therefore 
they  are  interested  in  what  they  are  made  of,  how  they  are  made,  how 
they  look,  the  material  and  the  price.  Put  these  things  into  your  items 
and  they  will  sell  goods  and  bring  you  a  return  on  your  advertising 
money. 


LESSON  III 
Subject  Matter  Is   Drawn  from  Departments 

IN  Lessons  I  and  II  of  this  series  on  advertising  the  method  of  telling 
the  story  of  goods  was  dealt  with.  Ideas  and  how  to  link  them 
with  goods  and  express  them  in  headlines,  introductories  and  items 
were  explained.  None  of  these  things — ideas,  headlines,  introductories 
or  items — makes  an  advertisement.  They  are  only  the  means  to  an  end. 
What  they  tell  about  is  the  important  thing  and  that  thing  is  merchan- 
dise— the  goods  the  store  has  to  sell. 

This  lesson,  number  three  in  the  series,  will  deal  with  matter  instead 
of  form,  the  material  that  goes  into  the  advertisement. 

Retail  advertising  is  a  message  about  goods  and  values.  This  mes- 
sage is  directed  toward  the  buying  public,  people  who  need  what  the 
store  has  to  sell.  This  alone  would  be  proof  enough  that  what  goes 
into  the  advertisement  is  of  great  importance.  But  there  is  another 
good  reason  why  it  is  important  to  pay  attention  to  what  goes  into  the 
advertisement;  one  line  of  goods  helps  to  sell  another,  or  one  depart- 
ment helps  to  sell  the  goods  of  other  departments  and  vice  versa. 

Not  all  departments  nor  all  lines  in  a  department  can  be  put  in 
one  advertisement.  If  they  could  be,  no  one  would  read  it.  If  they 
did  read  it,  they  would  have  difficulty  in  remembering  anything  definite 
and  therefore  the  effort  would  be  practically  wasted. 

Either  the  public  must  see  a  certain  number  of  items  it  needs  at 
the  time,  or  it  must  see  items  that  suggest  future  needs.  There  is  no 
reason  why  an  advertisement  cannot  be  merchandised  in  such  a  way 
that  the  goods  in  it  do  both — suggest  goods  of  immediate  need  and 
future  needs. 

Notice  for  example  the  sections  in  the  advertisement  reproduced 
on  next  page.  You  will  note  there  is  no  leading  headline  and  no  general 
introductory.  That  is  because  what  you  see  are  parts  of  two  advertise- 
ments run  on  different  days  by  the  same  store.  In  the  upper  half  are 
items  from  five  departments — dress  cottons,  notions,  wool  goods,  silks 
and  laces;  in  the  lower  half  are  items  from  undermuslins,  millinery, 
blouses,  gifts  and  a  special  item  of  silk. 

If  these  departments  were  put  into  an  advertisement  for  your 
store,  you  would  appeal  to  your  public  with  goods  from  nine  seasonable 
departments,  a  pretty  good  sized  ad  for  a  medium  sized  store.  If  half 
or  a  fourth  of  the  items  in  each  division  were  run,  the  ad  would  be 
smaller  in  size  but  would  have  the  same  general  interest  for  the  buying 
public. 

16 


SUBJECT   MATTER   FROM   DEPARTMENTS 


17 


For  example,  there  are  fifty  items  in  the  ''notions"  section;  ten 
in  the  "dress  goods"  section;  ten  in  the  "lace"  section;  seven  in  the 
"woolens"  section;  six  in  the  "black  silks"  section.  Half  the  items  in 
any  of  the  sections  would  be  enough  for  any  medium-sized  store  to  put 
into  one  ad  for  a  day.  But  only  five  departments  of  the  store  would 
be  represented.- 


I  Spring  dress  eottotis  in' 
the  "Aisle  of  Cotton f' 
_«»,£*  miti^if  Witt  Jtlilhl  m  /liV- 
unp^  intlntvl  Sumnttr  fnckl. 


NOTIONS 

and  dressmaking  needs-" 

—At  fi\em  (Mm  wUob  til  bOBM*«««r«  wfl] 
UmIt  r«r«bun  (or  lprtJi(  ud  •«»- 


Black  silks 


$5? 

a  ud  OM  dolUr 

>•  of  tbwt  n- 

chUut  In  row  botu.  f%    f\A. 

EASY    TERMS!  I    2.25^, 


NEIV  LACES 

and  dress  trimmings— 

frooLi  for  hn  tfpiiBC  «w4n4)f . 


-^y  Extra! - 


For  your  hgndizvork 


.Sflfm  charmeuse 

Stwing  vtik  ifiicial.  a  y4rd— 


r-a,i 


Woolens  for  Spring 


T$  *<  tpfm.U'iVA  /A*  M«p  Spring  tuitt  and  iktrlt 


^p^sif'ditpts^^r  vujthg  i««A/^7]  A^^  Stripe  tub  silk  Houses 
Superb  milliner)^ 

Spicialized  n 


Suppose  you  selected  four  items  each  out  of  the  lower  half;  you 
would  have  nine  departments  represented  and  a  good  showing  of  items 
from  each.  If  you  wanted  to,  or  the  stocks  were  in  shape  to  permit  it, 
you  could  put  in  four  items  of  shoes,  three  of  carpets  and  rugs,  three 
of  furniture  (if  it  is  carried),  and  you  would  then  have  an  advertise- 
ment which  would  draw  customers  to  twelve  merchandise  divisions  of 
the  store  in  addition  to  departments  not  represented  in  the  adver- 
tisement.   Remember  some  people  come  in  who  never  read  ads. 

Such  an  advertisement  would  bring  in  customers  w^ho  had  im- 
mediate need  of  goods  and  it  would  interest  customers  who  had  not 
thought  of  certain  things  needed. 


18  RETAIL   ADVERTISINa   AND    SELLING 

If  after  running  sucli  an  advertisement  you  had  a  good  general 
business  throughout  the  store,  you  could  credit  the  separate  items  in 
each  department  represented  in  the  ad,  because  it  is  the  items  of  silk, 
notions,  shoes,  millinery,  carpets,  furniture,  blouses  or  waists,  under- 
muslins,  etc.,  that  interest  the  readers  of  your  advertising.  They  see 
**one  thing"  they  want  and  then  are  reminded  of  ''several"  things. 
When  they  enter  the  store  they  see  ** other"  things,  and  so  it  goes. 

It  is  plain  that  the  item  is  the  life  of  the  ad.  If  it  is  timely,  clear, 
interesting,  if  it  describes  a  good  value  at  a  fair  price,  someone  is  sure 
to  be  interested  in  that  item.  If  there  are  fifty  such  items  your  chances 
for  business  are  multiplied  by  fifty  plus  the  average  number  of  people 
in  town  who  would  naturally  shop  at  your  store. 

Merchandising  the  ad  is  a  job  for  several  people  to  take  a  hand 
in — the  head  of  the  store,  the  buyers  for  departments,  the  ad  man, 
and  whoever  has  immediate  charge  of  sales.  In  some  stores  one  or 
two  people  do  all  of  these  things. 

When  merchandising  the  ad,  that  is,  selecting  what  departments 
and  what  items  of  goods  from  that  department  shall  be  advertised, 
keep  three  things  in  mind:  (1)  other  goods  not  advertised;  (2)  the 
seasons  of  the  year;  and  (3),  the  condition  of  stocks.  If  you  haven't 
got  enough  goods  in  a  department  to  respond  to  a  big  day,  do  not 
put  ten  or  twelve  items  from  that  department  into  the  ad.  Put  two 
or  three  in,  and  use  more  items  from  a  department  which  is  more 
seasonable  or  which  has  goods  in  it  which  are  in  steady  demand  every 
day. 


LESSON  IV 
Have  an  Architectural  Plan  for  Layout 

IDEAS,  form  and  material  have  now  been  outlined  in  this  series  of 
articles  in  the  order  mentioned.  This  lesson  deals  with  how  to  ar- 
range the  material,  give  it  the  power  of  attracting  the  eye  and  holding 
the  attention. 

Ad  men  who  want  to  make  their  advertisements  attractive  and 
easy  to  read  use  a  layout  method  in  arranging  material;  that  is,  they 
make  a  dummy  like  the  one  on  the  right  of  this  page  and  mark  out 
divisions  for  each  section  or  department  of  the  advertisement.  This  is 
called  a  ''dummy"  and  is  sent  to  the  printer  with  the  type  directions 
on  it  and  the  copy,  each  price  in  which  is  marked  with  a  letter  or  figure 
corresponding  to  a  letter  or  figure  in  the  dummy.  The  layout  is  used 
by  most  ad  men  in  planning  what  is  to  go  in  the  ad  and  where.  That 
is,  while  they  are  "merchandising"  the  ad  in  co-operation  with  other 
people  in  the  store  as  was  pointed  out  in  the  last  article,  they  decide 
how  much  space  to  give  the  hat  part  of  the  ad,  the  shoes,  the  coats  and 
suits,  the  basement  or  bargain  items  and  so  on.  Also  the  location  of 
each  is  decided  then  and  indicated  on  the  ' '  dummy ' '  layout. 

Helps   Printer   and   Customers 

If  the  printer  gets  a  layout  dummy  with  your  copy  he  can  make  a 
better  looking  ad  for  you.  It  will  do  your  store  honor  and  customers 
will  be  more  apt  to  read  your  ad.  It  will  look  interesting  and,  more 
important,  it  will  be  easier  to  read  than  if  it  is  badly  set  up  and 
arranged. 

Some  storekeepers  feel  that  their  ads  are  so  small  and  the  printing 
facilities  of  their  newspapers  so  poor  that  it  is  a  waste  of  time  to 
prepare  a  dummy  and  try  to  get  a  good  set-up.  This  is  a  mistake 
because  the  smaller  the  ad  and  the  fewer  the  fonts  of  type  on  hand  the 
more  need  for  neatness  and  attractiveness. 

On  the  opposite  page  is  the  dummy  for  an  eight-section  advertise- 
ment. The  space  as  it  stands  would  be  four  columns  wide  and  twelve 
inches  deep.  It  could,  however,  be  set  three  columns  by  ten  inches  deep 
if  a  smaller  ad  was  wanted.  The  dummy  is  shown  here  in  the  bigger 
size  because  it  reproduces  better. 

Notice  the  departments  represented :  Millinery,  two  items ;  corsets, 
two  items ;  women 's  furnishings,  two  items ;  bedding,  four  items ;  shoes, 
three  items;  domestics,  three  items;  twelve  items  in  all.    Besides  this 

19 


20  RETAIL   ADVERTISINO   AND    SELLING 

there  is  a  general  headline  and  an  introductory  and  a  special  intro- 
ductory for  ''coats  and  suits." 

Nothing  but  a  lead  pencil,  a  piece  of  paper,  a  ruler  and  proofs  of 
cuts  were  used  in  making  this  dummy.  All  else  that  was  needed  was 
an  idea  of  wliere  to  put  each  cut  and  each  merchandise  section. 

Of  course  if  this  had  been  a  real  dummy  for  a  real  store,  someone 
would  have  had  to  decide  what  departments  needed  representation  in 
the  advertisement. 

Since  the  dummy  is  only  an  example,  it  was  made  to  fit  the  needs 
of  this  article  instead  of  a  store.  Let  us  assume  that  it  is  a  dummy 
for  your  store  and  we  are  getting  up  next  Wednesday's  ad. 

It  is  decided  by  the  store  head  and  his  department  manager  that 
the  following  departments  or  divisions  of  the  store  stocks  ought  to 
be  featured  in  Wednesday's  advertisement — coats  and  suits,  millineiy, 
corsets,  domestics  and  linens,  shoes,  bedding,  hosieiy  and  gloves. 

Three  Things  to  Consider 

Three  questions  arise  after  it  has  been  decided  what  divisions  of 
stocks  shall  be  advertised: 

First  question:    How  many  items  or  how  much  of  each  division? 

Second  question:    How  much  space  for  the  items  of  each  division? 

Third  question :  Where  shall  each  division  be  placed  in  the  adver- 
tisement? 

These  questions  will  be  answered  in  reference  to  the  dummy  on 
the  opposite  page.  If  they  are  not  answered  the  store  will  have  an 
advertisement  which  looks  like  the  one  reproduced  here.  Notice  it. 
It  has  good  items  in  it  and  they  represent  good  value  of  a  fine  store, 
but  the  advertisement  looks  like  it  contained  only  one  item.  There  are 
coats  and  suits  in  it,  notions  and  domestics ;  but  the  ad  is  hard  to  read, 
unattractive,  and  in  no  way  interests  the  casual  observer.  This  is 
because  the  material  of  which  the  ad  is  made  is  not  arranged  into 
departments  in  the  advertising  space.  It  would  not  have  cost  any  more 
to  lay  out  this  ad  and  use  a  cut  or  two  to  enliven  it. 

Now  next  Wednesday's  ad:  The  ad  man,  or  whoever  handles  the 
ads  in  the  store  if  there  is  no  regular  ad  man,  draws  a  rough  sketch, 
four  columns  (newspaper  columns)  wide  and  twelve  inches  deep — 
forty-eight  inches  in  all.  He  has  been  told  or  knows  that  the  leading 
sections  are  to  be  millinery,  coats  and  suits  and  bedding.  Corsets  are 
next  in  importance.  The  ad  man  has  some  cuts  either  ordered  from 
a  cut  service  or  sent  by  the  manufacturers  of  the  goods.  Proofs  are 
taken  of  these  cuts  either  by  using  an  ink  pad  or  by  having  the  printer 
make  proofs.  (If  they  belong  to  a  service,  proofs  will  be  sent  with 
the  cuts.) 

A  place  is  marked  off  for  the  headline  and  the  general  introductory. 

A  double  ''X"  is  marked  where  the  headline  goes;  a  capital  ''A" 


HAVE  AN  ARCHITECTURAL  PLAN  FOR  LAYOUT       21 


Sketch  of  Rough  "Dummy" 

and  "B"  are  marked  for  the  introductory  because  it  is  to  be  set  double 
measure  across  the  top  of  the  ad — double  measure  is  easier  to  read 
than  long  lines. 


22  RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 

Millinery  and  coats  and  suits  come  next.  They  are  marked  '*D" 
and  '*C"  and  so  on  through  the  divisions — *'G"  for  gloves  and  hosiery; 
*'H"  for  bedding;  "E"  for  corsets;  ''F"  for  domestics  and  linens,  and 
*'M"  for  shoes.  It  will  be  noted  that  in  sections  ''H"  and  "M"  there 
are  figures  1,  2,  3,  4  and  5,  6,  7.  These  figures  refer  to  four  items  of 
bedding  and  three  of  shoes. 

Letters    Guide    Printer 

"When  the  copy  goes  to  the  printer  each  division  of  it  will  be  marked 
with  the  same  letters  as  are  on  the  dummy.  The  printer  then  knows 
where  copy  '*XX,"  ''A,"  '*B,"  etc.,  go.  He  could  tell  by  the  headings, 
written  in  with  a  lead  pencil,  but  it  is  better  to  letter  both  the  copy  and 
the  dummy. 

Now  the  answers  to  the  three  questions:  (1)  How  many  items; 
(2)  how  much  space;  and  (3),  where  shall  each  division  of  goods  be 
placed?  These  are  dealt  with  before  the  dummy  is  made,  usually,  but 
for  my  purpose  they  will  be  answered  with  the  dummy  to  look  at  for 
the  sake  of  learners. 

Important  Lines  Featured 

Cloaks  and  suits  are  the  leading  items,  so  they  are  put  near  the 
top;  millinery  is  reasonable,  so  it  is  put  near  the  top  and  a  cut  used 
to  give  the  items  life.  Coats  and  suits  need  only  general  description 
so  no  items  are  used. 

Bedding  is  put  at  the  lower  left  corner  because  that  is  the  only 
space  where  a  big  section  ^vill  balance  well  with  the  top  of  the  ad ;  shoes 
are  opposite  mainly  because  the  space  left  is  about  the  right  size  for 
three  items  and  a  headline  and  cut;  corsets  are  near  millinery  and 
coats  and  suits  because  they  are  of  similar  interest  to  women;  also 
because  of  the  cut  and  size  of  space  needed;  gloves,  hosiery,  towels, 
napkins  and  tablecloths  are  placed  across  the  center  because  they  need 
no  cuts  and  only  small  compact  item  descriptions. 

Notice  that  millinery,  corsets  and  shoes  are  "bored  in"  with  rule. 
This  is  to  divide  the  space  so  it  will  be  easy  on  the  eye,  also  to  balance 
the  type  area  of  the  entire  ad. 

This  ad  could  have  been  arranged  several  other  ways,  but  this 
way  is  the  most  practical  and  the  simplest.  The  heading  of  each  sec- 
tion will  help  readers  of  the  ad  to  find  quickly  what  interests  them; 
also  they  make  people  want  to  read  them.  The  ad  made  according  to 
this  dummy  will  look  good  in  the  newspapers  and  therefore  it  can  com- 
pete for  attention  with  other  ads.  Also  it  will  suggest,  because  it  looks 
neat  and  efficient,  that  the  store  publishing  it  is  wide  awake  and  busi- 
ness-like. 

There  are  forty-eight  newspaper  inches  in  this  dummy.  It  could 
be  made  thirty-six  inches,  or  twenty-four  inches,  but  in  the  latter  case 
only  two  cuts  could  be  used,  one  near  the  top,  the  other  near  the  bottom. 


LESSON  V 
Collecting  Materials  for  the  Ad  Is  Important 

IN  this  lesson  the  most  important  phase  of  retail  advertising,  aside 
from  copy  itself,  is  dealt  with.  This  important  thing  is  known  as 
the  ''advertising  schedule." 

The  term  "schedule"  includes  broadly  three  elements:  (1)  The 
amount  of  space  used  during  a  given  period  for  the  entire  store;  (2) 
the  time  this  space  is  used  to  advertise  a  department  or  section;  (3)  the 
amount  of  money  represented  by  the  space,  the  cost  per  line  or  per  inch. 

Only  the  first  and  second  elements  will  be  dealt  with  specifically 
here.  The  third  element,  price  of  space,  varies  so  greatly  in  different 
towns  that  it  can  be  treated  here  in  a  theoretical  manner  only. 

There  are  two  natural  situations  upon  which  the  store's  schedule 
of  advertising  can  be  planned.  Both  are  practical  so  they  are  herewith 
presented  briefly : 

Plan  hy  the  department — that  is,  one  merchandise  section  of  the 
store,  such  as  coats  and  suits  or  the  house  furnishings  or  shoes.  Sup- 
pose it  is  about  time  for  opening  of  the  fall  selling  season,  September, 
for  argument's  sake.  All  the  new  fall  coats  and  suits  are  in  stock 
ready  to  sell  or  at  least  enough  with  which  to  open  the  season.  You 
want  to  plan  for  a  six  weeks'  campaign.  This  will  be  run  into  the 
middle  of  October,  a  big  selling  month  in  most  sections  of  the  country. 

Your  local  newspaper  may  be  a  daily  or  it  may  appear  only  twice 
or  three  times  a  week.  In  either  case  you  decide  to  advertise  the  coats 
and  suits  twice  a  week  for  six  weeks.  That  is  twelve  advertisements, 
but  nothing  is  said  about  the  size  of  the  space. 

Before  you  can  decide  that,  you  ought  to  plan  approximately  how 
much  space  will  be  used  altogether  during  the  six  weeks  for  the  coats 
and  suits. 

Twice    a   Week    Schedule 

Arrive  at  it  this  way :  Space  in  the  paper,  let  us  say,  costs  20  cents 
an  inch  (newspaper  inch — column  wide,  inch  deep),  ten  inches  would 
cost  $2.00.  That  is  not  too  much  to  spend  to  advertise  the  goods.  Twice 
a  week  will  come  to  20  inches,  or  $4.00  in  money;  for  six  weeks  that 
will  amount  to  120  inches,  or  $24.00. 

Now,  suppose  the  best  two  days  of  the  week,  if  the  paper  is  a 
daily,  are  Tuesday  and  Saturday.  Then  you  will  want  your  advertise- 
ment to  appear  Mondays  and  Fridays.    If  the  paper  is  published  only 

23 


24  RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 

three  days  a  week,  you  have  no  choice  but  those  days,  of  course.  But 
assume  it  is  a  six  or  seven  day  paper. 

If  Saturday  is  the  best  business  day  you  will  want  to  run  the 
bulk  of  your  coat  and  suit  space  on  Friday  and  the  smaller  part  Monday. 

Adopt  this  schedule,  then:  eight  inches  Monday,  twelve  inches 
Friday.  Keep  in  mind  that  this  refers  to  space  used  to  advertise  coats 
and  suits  only.  There  will,  of  course,  be  other  parts  to  the  store  adver- 
tisement at  least  on  certain  days.    This  will  be  treated  later. 

Space    Schedule — Six    Weeks 

Make  out  a  schedule  sheet  in  a  flat,  loose-leaf  book  or  separate 
sheet  that  may  later  be  clipped  together,  and  at  the  head  of  this  sheet 
write  "Advertising  Schedule — Coats  and  Suits."  On  the  right  hand 
side  of  the  sheet  mark  the  days  of  the  week  as  they  appear  on  the 
reproduction  of  the  general  schedule  in  the  center  of  this  page,  Monday, 
Tuesday,  Wednesday,  Friday,  Saturday.  Make  six  such  sheets  and 
you  have  a  schedule  for  the  coats  and  suits  covering  six  weeks  of  time. 


^'$i&feT.^©^'f^ace' 


't)is^t.: 


F»qxt03!«a|     I  Cojrt,'. 


Safe  {"''Heinraaiil^'v; 


-f-v 


^«^^-  M.^.'//5Lrw.,:^^'-^'>'    y(a'^./>    :4x>^   ^^-n^^-li;.. 


va.: 


Specimen  of  Schedule  Sheet. 

Opposite  each  day  the  ad  is  to  run,  mark  the  amount  of  space. 
"Monday,  8  inches,"  "Friday,  12  inches." 

In  case  a  bigger  ad  is  needed  for  some  special  week,  use  less  the 
week  before  or  skip  Monday's  8-inch  ad  and  have  a  20-inch  ad  Friday. 

This  method  can  be  applied  to  any  division  of  the  store's  stock 
any  time  of  year,  either  by  first  deciding  on  the  amount  of  money  you 
intend  to  spend  in  six  weeks  or  the  amount  of  space  or  both,  since  space 
costs  money  anyway. 

Most  stores  carrying  a  full  line  of  departments  prefer  to  keep 


COLLECTING   MATERIALS   FOR   THE   AD  25 

a  general  schedule  showing  how  much  space  per  day  or  per  week  shall 
be  spent  for  the  entire  store,  department  by  department. 

Notice  the  schedule  sheet  reproduced  here.  It  indicates  a  prac- 
tical and  simple  method  of  keeping  track  of  the  days  to  advertise,  the 
inches  of  space  used,  the  cost  per  inch  and  the  amount  of  business  for 
the  day  the  advertisement  is  run,  remarks  about  returns,  and  finally, 
the  week's  total  of  space,  cost  of  space  and  amount  of  business  in  lines 
advertised. 

Analyze  the  week  beginning  September  10,  1920,  according  to  the 
details  used  in  the  reproduction.  The  figures  are  in  no  way  accurate. 
(They  are  merely  used  for  example.) 

On  Monday  eight  inches  were  used  for  coats  and  suits.  .  No  other 
departments  were  advertised.  If  they  had  been,  the  amount  in  inches, 
etc.,  should  have  been  stated  in  the  ''Monday"  strip  opposite  the  word 
Monday.  Make  the  space  deep  enough  to  hold  five  or  six  departments. 
It  is  made  small  in  the  reproduction  to  save  space  on  the  page. 

On  Wednesday  one  department,  shoes,  was  advertised;  on  Friday 
three  were  advertised,  shoes,  suits  and  coats,  and  housewares.  In 
all  during  the  week  42  inches  were  used,  the  cost  for  space  was  $8.40 ; 
the  sales  for  the  advertised  departments  on  those  three  days  amounted 
to  $265.00. 

Do  not  assume  that  the  $265.00  can  be  attributed  wholly  to  the 
advertisements.  It  cannot,  because  there  is  no  way  of  telling  how  much 
of  the  day's  business  was  brought  in  directly  by  the  advertisement 
and  how  much  came  in  naturally.  In  a  year's  time,  however,  with  a 
record  such  as  this  the  store  can  finally  gauge  the  general  effect  of 
consistent  advertising.  And  this  alone  is  worth  the  small  amount  of 
time  required  to  keep  the  weekly  record.  Large  stores  in  big  cities  use 
this  method  to  determine  how  much  money  to  appropriate  for  adver- 
tising year  after  year.  They  figure  it  at  a  certain  percentage  of  the 
volume  of  business  done  by  the  entire  store  and  then  prorate  the  amount 
of  space  each  department  should  have  and  the  percentage  of  the  total 
appropriation  each  department  must  pay. 

This,  of  course,  is  only  practical  in  a  highly  departmentized  store. 
The  store  not  so  highly  departmentized  only  needs  the  method  outlined 
above. 

In  the  ''Remarks"  column  keep  a  record  of  the  comparative  value 
of  the  day's  business.  For  example,  notice  that  after  Wednesday's 
shoe  ad  is  the  remark  "average  day's  business."  This  means  that 
there  was  about  the  same  amount  of  business  done  on  an  advertised 
day  as  on  a  not  advertised  day.  But  this  does  not  disqualify  the  ad. 
It  is  only  a  comparative  record.  Possibly  the  next  time  shoes  are 
advertised  with  the  same  or  even  a  less  amount  of  space  the  average 
day  may  be  doubled. 

The  important  thing  is  to  know  how  the  ads  are  drawing.     The 


26  RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 

only  way  is  to  keep  a  record  of  dates,  space,  costs  and  departments 
advertised. 

At  the  end  of  the  twelve  months  of  1920  you  may  find  you  have  done 
a  $50,000  business  and  have  spent  for  advertising  one-half  of  one  per 
cent,  or  $250.  You  can  compare  this  with  the  business  for  1919  and 
the  amount  spent  for  that  year's  advertising,  and  find  that  in  1919  you 
did  only  $45,000  and  spent  more  money  for  advertising.  The  conclusion 
might  be  that  the  1920  advertising  drew  better  or  that  general  business 
was  better.  That  would  be  interesting,  but  the  important  thing  is  that 
you  have  a  basis  for  advertising  expenditure  for  1921.  You  may  decide 
to  appropriate  1  per  cent  of  the  sales  for  advertising  in  1921.  If  you 
do  and  are  careful  to  write  good  ads  and  put  the  right  items  in  them 
you  may  increase  your  1921  year's  business  a  great  deal.  It  has  been 
done. 

Some  store  ad  men  keep  their  daily  record  on  ordinary  brown 
wrapping  paper.  The  sheets  are  made  the  size  of  the  newspaper  page 
for  convenience  in  writing. 


LESSON  VI 
Advertising  Ought  to  Run  on  Regular  Schedule 

NORMALLY  it  would  seem  that  the  subject  of  this  article  should 
have  appeared  first  instead  of  sixth  in  this  series.  But  an  ad  man 
must  know  how  to  create  ideas,  plan  and  write  copy  before  he  can  be 
told  how  to  manage  the  details  of  getting  it  ready  to  print.  So  now 
that  ideas,  introductories,  items,  merchandising  and  scheduling  of  the 
advertisement  have  been  dealt  with  in  the  order  mentioned,  let  us  take 
up  what  the  advertisement  is  made  of — the  subject  matter — and  how 
to  get  it  to  the  printer  in  good  shape. 

Before  the  material  that  goes  to  make  up  a  retail  advertisement 
can  be  made  into  an  advertisement,  it  must  be  collected  and  assembled. 
The  question  now  is :  Where  do  the  different  parts  come  from?  Where 
do  the  ideas  come  from,  the  themes  of  the  introductories,  the  merchan- 
dising points  in  the  items?  Where  do  the  illustrations  come  from; 
that  is,  what  influences  the  kind  of  illustrations  used? 

In  the  first  place  a  retail  advertisement  has  its  beginning  in  the 
stock  of  goods  in  the  store.  The  goods  are  there  ready  to  sell  and 
would  sell  to  a  certain  extent  if  they  were  never  advertised.  By  the 
judicious  use  of  advertising,  however,  these  goods  will  sell  more  rapidly 
and  to  a  broader  clientele,  certain  lines  can  be  sold  to  better  advantage 
both  to  store  and  customers  and  the  store  will  have  a  greater  prestige 
than  if  no  advertising  were  used. 

Naturally,  if  it  is  the  spring  season  suits  and  dresses  are  in  stock 
ready  to  sell.  Also  light  weight  underwear  is  in  stock,  as  are  dress 
goods,  corsets,  veils,  gloves,  stockings,  shoes,  household  goods,  etc., 
clear  through  the  range  of  seasonable  lines.  The  ad  man  will,  if  he 
sees  the  advertising  in  the  proper  light,  go  to  the  good's  to  get  his  start. 
And,  of  course,  the  start  means  an  idea  to  put  life  into  the  copy,  as 
was  dealt  with  in  the  first  article  of  this  present  series. 

Take  the  first  item  in  the  reproduced  advertisement  on  next  page 
for  example.  The  item  is  spring  dresses.  Before  the  ad  man  wrote 
the  copy  he  decided  on  three  things : 

First,  to  make  "spring  wear"  the  theme  of  his  argument; 

Second,  to  feature  the  idea  of  desirahility  of  design  and  finish; 

Third,  to  emphasise  the  exceptional  value  for  the  money. 

All  these  things  came  from  the  goods.  There  was  no  other  place 
for  them  to  come  from.  The  idea  for  the  illustration  came  from  the 
same  place — the  goods.     The  illustration  is  designed  to  show  actual 

27 


28 


RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 


details.    The  cut  for  the  ad  was  made  from  a  pen  drawing.    This  adver- 
tisement avoids  confusion.    It  shows  clearly  what  is  being  offered. 

Of  course  there  were  other  dresses  in  the  department,  but  the  ones 
pictured  and  written  about  in  the  dress  section  of  the  ad  w^ere  selected 
because  of  their  seasonableness  and  current  style  value.  The  individual 
descriptions  of  the  four  items  are  intended  to  interest  a  wide  range 


Exclusiveness   knJ  Beauty  CKaractenscs 

Tne  Spring 

D 


:'#< 

B^^ 

H^m-' 

tt 

WU 

1 

SB 

fil-nnllHI 

L 

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1  JS-!^ 

th-. 


resses 

Tricotine  and  Serge 

*Very  desirable  for 
out  a  coat  or  y/iih  a  sirart  ,[i>r  are 
these  frocla.  and  dcsis^iers  have 
given  close  attention  to  striking 
effects  m  embroideries,  interest- 
ing new  lines  (or  the  ^J^uetle 
and  unusual  points  of  styling. 


$53.00 

"sstTso' 

*iKl*l  ir  br^uiiruli/ 

"ssf'Iso 

$37.50 


Hoiiig  Staples 
ss.so 


$i.2S„, 


COLORED  PLAtN  VOILEt.  VOt 

98c 


HEMMCO  PILt-OW  CASI 

75c ...» 


V 


ENOtllH  LONaCLOTH.  ^ 

45c 


Woaien  s  Gov€s 


$1.25 

CCOO  OUALITV   O'   KAVfltR 


$1.25 


U&LC  THAEAO  GLOVC* 

69c 


Hosiery 


lEN-t  MERCcnizeo 


CI00IE8'  FIBflE  SILK   COCKS 

75  c  p.,. 


/*Nk;=./., 


Women's  Warm  Weather 
Underwear 


IM  HARVCr  DRAWERS.  P*<« 

98c 

in«Dl  u*4   h«*«  be*ii   prW«d   for 
ouKk  •elll««.    Mide  la  ■  111  ria 


$1.75 


Nemo  Self  Reducing  Corsets,  pr. 


$1.50 


auMMCft  vcrri 

59e 


$6.00 


Model  for  the  full  figure,  low  bus 
loiig  skirt,  heavily  boned,  graduated.] 
front  clasp,  wah  th^  patented  self- 
reducing  straps,  which  banish  excess  flesh  permanently 
and  support  the  body  scientilfcally.  Let  one  ol  our  trained 
corsetieres  fit  yoo  to  your  Nemo  corset  today;  sizes  23 
10  10, 


The  Dress  Goods  Counter  Presents  Your 
Summer  Wardrobe 
By  The  Yard 

— Contintfes  the  Sale  of  Silks  at  ysrd 

Silk  Corduroy  Velvet 


Coordinated  Subject  Matter. 

of  taste.  To  get  this  element  into  his  copy  the  ad  man  analyzed  the 
taste  and  inclinations  of  the  customers  of  his  store.  Customer  analysis 
is  important  not  only  for  the  ad  man  but  for  the  merchant  and  buyer 
as  well. 

It  is  simple  enough  to  get  enough  items  for  the  leading  section 
of  the  ad,  such  as  the  dress  section  of  the  one  reproduced  here,  but 
care  is  needed  in  selecting  the  material  for  the  remainder  of  the  sec- 
tions. You  will  note  that  all  other  merchandise  is  seasonable  in  so  far 
as  spring  goes,  also  it  is  allied  in  use  if  not  in  nature  to  the  dresses. 


ADVERTISING  OUGHT  TO  RUN  ON  SCHEDULE   29 

Most  of  tlie  other  lines  of  goods  are  personal — use  commodities  just 
as  the  dresses  are — goods  worn  by  or  used  by  an  individual  rather 
than  by  a  group.  The  exception  to  this  is  found  in  the  section  headed 
''Home  Staples."  These  are  household-use  goods.  Merchandise  to 
serve  any  member  of  the  household,  even  if  used  in  an  individual 
way,  is  classified  as  household-use  goods. 

The  silks  do  not  come  under  this  classification  but  under  one 
identical  with  dresses. 

It  is  clear  then  that  a  good  advertisement  is  one  whose  sections 
and  items  tend  to  draw  trade  to  one  another.  It  is  possible,  for  example, 
that  one  customer  may  buy  from  all  sections  of  this  advertisement. 
(It  is  noted  that  the  headline,  signature  and  introduction  are  not  on 
the  ad  because  it  is  used  merely  to  illustrate  how  merchandise  sections 
were  selected.) 

To  get  the  items  the  ad  man  visited,  if  in  a  small  store,  each  of 
the  department  heads  whose  goods  are  represented  in  the  ad.  He  got 
the  descriptions  of  goods  from  their  department  heads,  also  the  main 
selling  points.  Then  he  wrote  the  copy,  planned  the  layout  and  sent 
the  material  to  the  printer. 


LESSON  VII 
Make  the  Advertisement  Fit  Its  Purpose 

IN  the  preceding  lesson  the  details  of  how  to  plan,  write  and  manage 
retail  copy  were  outlined.  Each  of  the  six  articles  brought  out  one 
important  point  in  connection  with  (1)  working  up  ideas;  (2)  applying 
the  ideas  to  copy  and  goods;  (3)  merchandismg  the  ad;  (4)  arranging 
material  and  illustrations;  (5)  handling  the  time  and  space  schedule; 
and  (6),  getting  advertising  material  from  sections  and  departments 
and  putting  it  into  the  hands  of  the  printer. 

These  things  all  referred  directly  to  how  to  produce  a  retail  adver- 
tisement. Assuming  that  the  store  management  and  the  ad  man  have 
assimilated  this  material  and  have  tried  to  add  it  to  the  store  of  adver- 
tising knowledge  they  already  had,  we  now  turn  the  application  of  that 
knowledge  to  the  daily  news  of  the  store. 

There  are  many  kinds  of  retail  ads.  Each  has  a  general  and  a 
special  purpose.  The  general  purpose  is  the  same  with  all  ads,  no 
matter  what  kind — to  stimulate  business,  increase  sales  and  build  up 
good  will  for  the  store.  Specific  purposes  of  ads  depend  on  various 
things  and  conditions.  These  conditions  may  be  expressed  in  a  broad 
way  as  follows : 

(1)  Season  conditions — ^meaning  the  demand  for  goods  that  is 
brought  about  by  the  calendar  seasons  such  as  Spring,  Winter,  Summer, 
Autumn.  (2)  Merchandise  conditions — meaning  the  condition  of  stocks 
in  the  store,  such  as  new  goods,  heavy  stocks,  too  much  goods  of  a  kind, 
special  purchases,  season  end  stocks  like  remnants,  odd  sizes,  discon- 
tinued lines,  slow  movers,  ''stickers,"  etc.  (3)  Store  conditions — re- 
modeling, removing,  reorganization,  new  departments,  etc.  (4)  Local 
conditions — meaning  buying  or  business  conditions  in  the  town,  such  as 
competition,  increased  or  decreased  buying  population,  new  territory, 
mail  order  competition  and  so  on.  (5)  Conditions  due  to  new  or 
changed  policies,  such  as  a  popular  price  store  going  after  better  trade 
or  vice  versa,  or  changing  the  merchandise  policy  from  cash  to  cash 
and  credit  or  the  reverse. 

All  these  conditions  require  certain  kinds  of  advertisements  and 
special  treatment  of  the  material  in  such  advertisements,  which  will  be 
dealt  with  in  several  different  ways  later  on  and  in  connection  with 
varying  conditions. 

In  this  series  the  conditions  will  be  secondary  to  the  ads,  but  will 
be  dealt  with  in  coim.ection  with  the  treatment  of  the  ads.    Specimens 

30 


MAKE    THE   ADVERTISEMENT   FIT   ITS    PURPOSE     31 

of  good  and  bad  advertisements  will  be  used  to  illustrate  the  points  as 
they  are  brought  out. 

Retail  advertising  men  and  women  constantly  strive  for  channels 
through  which  new  or  different  appeals  may  be  sent  to  customers,  for 
it  is  an  obscure  store  indeed  which  has  not  created  events  of  its  own 
in  the  hope  of  individualizing  attention.  Competition  is  keen,  and  often 
in  the  same  town  stores  are  similar  in  size  and  character.  That  is  one 
cause  for  the  striving  for  characteristic  effects.  Then  there  is  the  real 
cause,  one  that  is  never  absent — the  similarity  of  merchandise  carried, 
the  similarity  of  needs  to  be  filled. 

If  there  were  but  one  store  in  a  town,  possibly  it  could  get  along 
with  the  same  type  of  advertisement  every  day  or  with  an  advertise- 
ment in  which  nothing  but  the  seasonal  items  would  be  changed  week 

|iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii luiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuKiiiiniiii iiiiiNiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin     niiiiiiiiiiiiig 

1  g 

I  Retail  Ads  Classified  to  Fit  Store  | 
I  Conditions  During  tke  Year.  | 

M  g 

1.    Store  Conditions  Kinds  of  Ads  Needed  | 

M  s 

I  ( 1 )  Season   Conditions ( 1 )    Event  Ads  | 

I  (2)  Merchandise    Conditions.  .  (2)    Specialized  Ads  | 

I  (3)  Store  Conditions (3)    Special  Ads  | 

I  (4)  Local  Conditions (4)    Merchandise  Ads  | 

I  (5)  Policy  Conditions .(5)    Departmentized   Ada  I 


in  and  week  out.  At  any  rate,  such  a  store  would  have  one  reason  only 
instead  of  two  for  striving  for  effect — to  get  people  to  remember  what 
was  said  in  the  advertisement.  Nothing  would  need  be  done  to  get 
people  to  remember  the  advertisement. 

But  with  other  stores  in  the  field,  ad  men  must  get  their  adver- 
tisements read,  get  them  remembered,  get  them  identified — the  mes- 
sages at  least — in  the  reader's  mind. 

It  is  this  situation  that  is  accountable  for  ''Dollar  Day,"  "Old 
Home  Week,"  "Clover  Day,"  "Days  of  Courtesy,"  "Hour  Sales," 
"9  Cent  Sales,"  "Anniversaries,"  "Alteration,"  "Change  of  Loca- 
tion," "Eemodeling,"  and  the  hundred  and  one  event  announcements 
that  appear  in  a  j^ear's  schedule. 

Also,  competition  is  accountable  for  the  different  ways  of  mer- 
chandising the  advertisement — ways  of  giving  lines  of  goods  and  de-- 
partments  representation  in  the  advertisement. 

Broadly  there  are  five  different  kinds  of  retail  ads,  as  follows: 


32  RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 

(1)  ^'departmentized";  (2)  ''merchandised";  (3)  ''specialized";  (4) 
"special"  advertisements;  and  (5),  "events"  advertisements. 

A  departmentized  advertisement  gives  representation  to  a  group 
of  allied  departments:  say,  millinery,  cloaks,  suits,  shoes,  gloves,  etc., 
departments  supplying  outer  apparel. 

A  merchandised  advertisement  has  something  in  it  from  practically 
every  department.    It  is  a  "whole  store"  announcement. 

A  specialized  advertisement  deals  with  one  phase  of  merchandising 
a  single  line  of  goods  in  a  department.  An  ad  with  nothing  in  it  but 
cloaks  and  suits  or  muslin  underwear  or  silks,  for  example,  is  a  spe- 
cialized advertisement. 

A  special  advertisement  deals  with  a  single  characteristic  of  the 
store's  merchandising — price,  values,  variety,  size  of  stocks,  grade  of 
goods,  or  a  special  method  of  selling. 

An  "events"  advertisement  is  one  that  features  a  merchandising 
event  aside  from  the  goods  it  exploits,  such  as  "an  anniversary"  ad,  a 
"fall  opening"  ad,  a  "Hai'vest  Home  Week"  ad,  etc. 

The  nature  and  purpose  of  the  "events"  ad  will  be  dealt  with 
in  the  second  article  of  this  series. 


LESSON  VIII 

Use   Special   Advertisements   for   Special   Occasions 

ANY  advertisement  wliicli  has  back  of  it  a  special  occasion  is  kno^\^l 
-^^as  an  ''event"  ad  or  an  occasion  ad.  That  is,  one  whose  mer- 
chandising is  emphasized  by  some  happening  outside  of  the  merchan- 
dise itself,  but  connected  with  the  store.  Here  are  the  names  of  some 
store  events :  Anniversary  ^ale.  Removal  Sale,  Eemodeling  or  Altera- 
tion Sale,  Inventory,  Clearance  Remnant  Day,  Month  End  Sales,  etc. 
All  these  sales  or  events  get  their  names  from  a  store  condition,  it  will 
be  noted,  a  condition  not  directly  connected  with  a  special  season. 

There  are  other  kinds  of  events,  such  as  '*9  Cent"  Sale,  Old  Home 
Week,  Housekeepers '  Sale,  and  some  invented  by  individual  stores  such 
as  Clover  Day,  Specials,  Days  of  Courtesy,  Dollar  Day,  Hour  Sales  and 
so  on.  The  last  five  of  these  were  created  by  certain  stores  and  adapted 
by  other  stores  in  modified  form.  It  will  be  seen  that  these  events  are 
all  relative  to  the  special  selling  of  goods  through  advertising.  An 
ad  that  features  any  such  occasion  is  termed  an  event  ad. 

There  is  a  regular  line  of  procedure  to  follow  in  event  advertising. 
It  is  herewith  outlined  to  fit  the  needs  of  smaller  stores  in  small  cities 
and  towns: 

First,  have  a  good  reason  for  the  event,  a  reason  that  is  related 
to  store  conditions  or  at  least  local  conditions.  Trumped  up  events 
are  unconvincing  and  the  public  is  slow  to  respond  to  them.  But  a 
selling  event  with  a  real  reason  back  of  it  creates  interest. 

Suppose  your  store  is  going  to  be  remodeled,  a  floor  added  or  a 
floor  extended  or  an  entire  new  section  is  to  be  added  to  the  building, 
that  is  a  good  basis  for  holding  a  special  selling  event  and  for  adver- 
tising it,  especially  if  the  remodeling  necessitates  the  removal  of  a 
certain  part  of  the  store's  stock  of  goods.  This  should  not  be  viewed 
as  an  opportunity  to  unload  a  lot  of  dead  stock  on  the  public,  but  as 
an  opportunity  to  give  the  public  good  values  for  the  money  with  a 
special  reason  for  so  doing — the  need  to  reduce  stocks  to  facilitate 
remodeling. 

This  remodeling  situation  is  used  here  only  as  an  example,  since 
there  are  few  occasions  for  holding  such  a  sale.  It  is  merely  a  good 
example  of  what  a  real  event  is.  After  the  reason  is  worked  out,  the 
next  thing  is  to  get  a  good  advertising  name  for  the  event. 

How  to  get  a  good  name  is  not  such  a  simple  matter.  It  is  an  im- 
portant question,  for  on  the  name  depends  the  drawing  power  of  the  ad. 

33 

8 


34 


RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 


The  name  should  be  a  simple,  direct  statement,  and  have  in  it  some- 
thing that  will  link  tlie  customer's  interest  with  that  of  the  store,  since 
the  ad  is  in  reality  gotten  out  as  an  aid  to  the  customer  whom  you  expect 
to  buy  3''our  goods. 

For  argument's  sake  let  us  name  an  advertising  event  based  on 
the  remodeling  of  the  store  about  August  10th  or  20th,  let  us  say. 
We  are  going  to  try  to  interest  our  clientele  in  shopping  for  good  values. 

How  w^ould  this  name  do  for  the  event?  ''Brown  &  Co.'s  Remodel- 
ing Sale."  It  is  too  general;  gives  no  idea  of  why  the  event  is  advan- 
tageous to  customers.  How  is  this?  ''Brow^n  &  Co.  Have  to  Empty 
One  Whole  Floor 

"This"  Page^lls  'fS^^tti%' M^^  Famous  Monthly  Economy  Event 
AVhy  Our  Custom- 


Economy  Basement 


9  m  Boys' WasKSiitis 
CoatJI 
Psat»  Ji*' 

1,600  Childreii's.Wasfi 
^ts  and  Rompers  at  O 


Boys'  and  Qiildreifs 
Union  SuH«  i  for  $1^ 


ers  Are  Inter- 
ested." This  is 
pretty  good,  but 
there  is  something 
lacking  in  both  the 
main  title  and  the 
sub-title.  Here  is 
a  better  way  : 
''Brown  &  Co. 
Want  to  Move 
Half  Their  Goods 
Into  Your  Homes 
by  August  20th." 
"Household  Goods 
and  Ready-to-Wear  Stocks  at  Prices  Listed  Here.'' 

This  kind  of  a  heading  indicates  that  the  store  will  make  it  worth 
while  for  the  public  to  help  reduce  stock.  The  reason  must  be  given 
in  detail,  of  course,  in  the  introductory  and  the  item  sections  of  the 
advertisement. 

Buying  Advantages   Exploited 

Keep  in  mind  that  it  is  not  the  remodeling  or  whatever  other 
cause  for  the  selling  event  that  counts  with  the  customer.  It  is  the 
buying  advantage  afforded  her  by  the  event  that  counts.  If  the  values 
offered  are  real  and  the  reason  for  offering  them  is  legitimate  and 
logical,  an  event  sale  is  a  sure  way  to  increased  business. 

Notice  the  main  title  of  the  ad  reproduced  with  this  article :  "Bry's 
Famous  Monthly  Economy  Event. ' '  It  announces  two  things — that  the 
sale  is  an  advantage  to  the  customer  and  that  it  is  a  regular  established 
store  event.  Then  notice  how  the  ad  is  merchandised.  Every  item  in 
it  besides  selling  at  a  dollar  is  timely  and  seasonable. 


LESSON  IX 

Qearance  Sales  Need  Careful  Treatment 

NO  store  is  free  from  the  periodical  need  to  move  goods  quickly. 
The  need  is  common  to  the  big  city  store  of  metropolitan  size 
and  equipment,  and  the  smaller  city  store  less  impressive  in  size  and 
departments.  At  the  end  and  sometimes  in  the  middle  of  a  season 
a  quick-moving  event  is  necessary  to  lighten  stocks. 

Here  are  the  outlines  of  such  a  method  and  the  general  details 
of  the  advertising  plan  that  will  prove  most  effective. 

First,  create  a  good  name  for  the  event,  a  name  with  something 
to  it  besides  the  idea  of  clearance.  This  means  that  the  name  must  fit 
the  nature  of  the  event  and  must  have  behind  it  a  reason  for  offering 
goods  at  reductions  or  the  counterpart  of  reduced  price — extra  value 
for  the  money. 

A  definite  example  of  this  is  shown  in  the  advertisement  of  Rey- 
mond's,  Baton  Rouge,  La.,  which  is  reproduced  on  this  page. 

The  purpose  of  this  event  is  season  clearance  of  merchandise 
throughout  seasonal  departments  of  the  store.  But  the  theme  of  the 
event  and  the  ad  which  announces  it  is  extra  value  for  the  money.  And 
the  reason  is  the  thirty-seventh  anniversary  of  the  store. 

Sales  Elements   Behind  Event 

Note  that  there  are  three  distinct  sales  elements  behind  this  event. 

First,  the  intention  of  quickly  moving  goods  out  of  the  depart- 
ments— clearance. 

Second,  the  announcement  of  an  incentive  for  the  public — extra 
value  for  the  money. 

Third,  a  definite  reason  for  the  event,  both  from  the  store's  side 
and  the  customer's  interest. 

Stores  planning  a  clearance  event  for  any  time  of  the  year  can 
safely  follow  the  method  of  merchandising  outlined  in  this  ad  because 
the  method  fits  the  purpose  of  the  event.  Not  all  clearance  events  are 
held  on  an  anniversary  of  the  store  as  this  one  was,  but  the  idea  will 
be  the  same.  The  occasion  may  be  nothing  more  definite  than  a  special 
calendar  date,  or  a  local  event  like  a  county  fair,  circus  day,  or  a  local 
celebration  of  some  kind.  The  important  thing  is  the  reason  for  the 
event,  the  excuse,  if  you  like,  for  offering  good  merchandise  at  a  reduc- 
tion. 

Reymond's  want  their  public  to  feel  that  it  has  had  a  part  in  the 

35 


36 


RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND   SELLING 


store's  growth  through  thirty-seven  years  of  business  activity.  They 
frankly  say  as  much  in  the  introductory  and  touch  on  the  fact  that 
the  store's  growth  and  prestige  rests  on  fair  dealing  with  the  public, 
the  giving  of  good  goods  for  the  money,  and  good  values  for  the 
amount  of  money.  It  is  useless  to  make  such  a  claim  unless  the  store's 
part  bears  out  the  claim.  Customers  have  good  judgment  and  clear 
memories  as  a  mle.  Also  a  store's  reputation  rests  in  the  hands  of 
its  regular  customers.  They  pass  the  word  around  and  hand  it  down 
from  generation  to  generation;  such  and  such  a  store  can  be  depended 
upon  to  do  what  it  says  and  do  it  willingly  and  gracefully. 

No  amount  of  clever  wording  or  skilful  argument  will  perma- 
nently change  the  attitude  of  the  buying  public  one  way  or  another. 
Deeds  not  words  are  the  means  by  which  the  public  measures  a  store. 
And  deeds  are  shown  by  actions,  especially  in  store  ads. 


WuhWenaH 


^    965  PAUtS  OF  SHOES,  BELOW-COST 


SaxmJJe  Silkt 


Sea;-*-' 


Study  carefully  the  offerings  in  this  ad.  Study  them  by  sections 
in  the  ad  and  by  departments  featured. 

In  ready-to-wear  you  will  see  special  values  in  summer  dresses, 
blouses,  muslinwear,  millinery,  shoes,  skirts,  sport  clothes,  hosiery, 
men's  suits,  underwear,  furnishings  and  silk  suits.  In  household  and 
general  lines  the  ad  is  full  of  offerings  of  household  necessities,  wash- 
goods,  rugs,  traveling  goods,  toilet  goods  and  linens. 

There  is  nothing  in  the  ad  but  what  is  seasonable  and  practically 
every  item  represents  a  constant  want  or  need  on  the  part  of  individuals 
and  households.  This  is  the  real  secret  of  the  success  of  this  anniversary 
event  and  similar  ones  in  other  stores.  The  public  is  invited  to  buy 
goods  it  needs  while  those  goods  are  in  season.    This  at  first  might 


CLEARANCE    SALES    NEED    CAREFUL   TREATMENT    37 

seem  to  be  a  very  little  unimportant  point.  But  it  is  a  very  big,  very 
important  one.  It  either  makes  or  breaks  a  merchandising  .event,  and 
it  makes  the  difference  between  successful  and  unsuccessful  retail  adver- 
tising. 

When  clearance  is  made  the  store  should  be  able  to  offer  goodly 
quantities  in  a  line  or  department.  People  are  touchy  about  being 
told  that  certain  desirable  goods  ''are  all  sold  out."  Also,  goods  must 
be  up  to  non-clearance  standards.  It  is  disconcerting  to  look  at  an  item 
offered  at  a  reduced  price  and  detect  signs  of  inferior  quality,  work- 
manship or  weight.  There  is  no  advantage  to  a  customer  to  pay  less 
and  get  less ;  but  she  thrills  at  getting  more  or  better  for  her  money. 

Hundreds  of  so-called  clearance  events  have  fallen  flat  early  on 
account  of  this  point,  and  not  always  because  the  store  was  insincere. 
More  likely  because  the  merchandising  department  used  poor  judgment. 

Study  Condition  of  Stocks 

At  the  near  approach  of  a  clearance  event,  the  head  of  a  store 
and  his  helpers  should  take  account  of  what  is  in  stock,  how  much,  what 
qualities,  and  the  season  demand  for  it.  Then  an  estimate  should  be 
made  of  how  long  the  public's  interest  can  be  held  by  the  theme  or 
purpose  of  the  event  as  expressed  in  the  title  of  this  ad. 

Ordinarily  the  words  ' '  clearance, "  "  clearaway, "  "  stock  reducing, ' ' 
etc.,  are  colorless  terms  not  likely  to  long  remain  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  read  the  store's  ads.  It  is  better  to  use  such  heads  as  secondary 
captions,  putting  a  personal  note  in  the  name  of  the  event  and  in  the 
title  of  the  ad  that  heralds  that  event.  Here  is  an  example  of  what 
is  meant:  ''We  Invite  Our  Customers  to  Select  What  They  Need 
from  .Our  Shelves."  Sub-title:  "Values  Are  Plainly  Indicated  by 
Prices  and  Qualities  You  Are  Familiar  With — Reductions  Will  Sur- 
prise You." 

The  whole  secret  of  a  successful  clearance  sale  is,  in  a  nutshell, 
have  a  reason  for  clearance,  make  this  reason  clear  and  interesting 
and  illustrate  it  by  descriptive  items  in  the  ad.  Last  but  not  least: 
Run  just  as  few  clearance  sales  as  possible. 


LESSON  X 

Goodwill   Advertisements   Pay   the   Most 

"^TEW  business  comes  to  a  retail  store  through  two  direct  channels. 
-^^  One  of  these  is  the  demand  of  established  customers  for  more 
goods  of  a  certain  kind  and  better  goods.  This  means  that  the  store 
can,  through  its  advertising  and  service,  interest  its  regular  trade  in 
more  carpets,  rugs,  clothing  and  so  on,  and  educate  them  to  want  better 
goods  as  time  goes  on. 

The  other  channel  through  which  new  business  reaches  the  store 
is  through  new  customers,  people  who  have  done  the  bulk  of  their 
trading  elsewhere.  These  are  best  reached  through  the  store's  con- 
sistent advertising  campaign. 

The  distinction  is  clear  between  purely  merchandising  ads  and 
those  with  a  goodwill  slant.  The  first  kind  simply  outlines  what  the 
store  will  offer  the  public  tomorrow  or  the  next  day;  the  second  kind 
does  the  same  thing,  but  in  addition  makes  customers  want  to  buy  goods. 
An  ad  of  the  second  type  is  reproduced  here.  An  analysis  of  it  will 
serve  as  a  lesson  in  the  most  productive  and  least  costly  of  all  types 
of  retail  ads. 

Strictly  speaking,  any  good  ad  a  store  puts  out  is  a  goodwill  ad, 
but  there  are  only  a  few  that  are  especially  designed  to  build  up  what  is 
known  as  prestige.  A  better  name  for  prestige  so  far  as  retailing  goes 
is  "leadership."  The  store  that  gains  leadership  in  its  community  is 
on  the  sure  road  to  commercial  success. 

Any  store  can  gain  leadership,  not  necessarily  in  all  lines,  but  in 
a  few.  And  the  thing  that  characterizes  an  ad  as  a  prestige  ad  is  leader- 
ship departments.  It  is  easy  for  any  store  to  acquire  leadership  in, 
say,  its  ready-to-wear  lines,  or  its  shoes  and  millinery  or  its  domestics. 

But  no  store  ever  attained  leadership  in  any  line  without  special 
effort. 

Prestige  Methods  of  Real  Value 

Study  the  ad  reproduced  here.  It  has  most  of  the  elements  of  a 
distinctly  goodwill  ad.  At  first  it  will  appear  little  different  from 
any  other  ad,  since  it  has  only  the  physical  appearance  of  the  ordinary 
retail  announcement.  But  behind  it  there  is  something  not  found  in 
the  average  run  of  daily  retail  publicity.  It  has  a  definite  idea,  a  specific 
appeal,  that  interests  certain  kinds  of  customers.  This  appeal  is  found 
in  the  descriptive  items  in  each  of  the  ten  merchandise  sections  repre- 
sented in  it. 

38 


GOODWILL   ADVEETISEMENTS    PAY  ;THE   MOST       39 


Wash  Goods 

and 
Table  Damask 

Remnants 

Half-Price 


awe 

en  Qth,n  Cm  0'  I- 

Srilrl.>i(»l|  color..!.  i"i»t»"inf>i""  "•'"•••»«       \DJm»*mtJ^  ik.l  "Jl  r-t  Wl  ""«     1  ;v>4m  ..Uikal  a  •  r>l  *J/^»«|   J' 

ihidri     B*litr  cont  ttrlr  (or  ihM  b«c  Mr(*tn.  1^  I      rilur  •!  lU  r*ral.r  pr1r«'»I  lAOOa  ruA  I 


Prc-Wcr  Pricu  r<wi(  A'cw  Olh,n  Can  or  IViU  Oa)>;.ai(( 
«.ln.  WOO  CtorrcHc  G«(».  IM/J.  |  40-<n.  $300  CtatitCtlix.iimi. 


(i.7S  W  MOO  f  ou/arA.  siorif,  i289 

Ji.50  ChillM-TdltU.  yi..  SiJ9 

.on,  tqu.ll>  MrvKr.blr  for  dr.Mf.  <.r  iuil>   8i-..-q.. 
fro  >.  f  rrro*   r..*r.  t.n.  coM.  I.thi  Vot  iuJ  ltd.  .1.0 

S4.50  aarmti»<  iwi/  SoHn.  iJ.7S 

-Too  m.Kh  l.*orfd  «..*..  for  drru-H  and  tb.rl. 
prndrd  0^1  (or\>r.r.    Blork.  D.«y.  l.op«  %n<l  irty. 

W.50  /Ill-Silk  Sti/e,  yd.,  «.;5 

U  mJ  H.50  Silk  Shilling  C-tfc.  yi,  S3. 19 


EXTRA  SPECIAi, 

Sport  Silks 

includini 
-JlkJUuM't  tllb  i»  tu»-Sufl  luu*.  IHvUd.  Oku- 
cUII»--a«UB  Md  UftU-Kcwl.  nfiUfly  r^cW  U  •«,  110  M 

ud  113  eo— 

Also 

— 17  js'io  111  00  Truolltu..  ui4  While  Sp«ffi  Silki 

Alt  at  Choice 

Yard  at  $4.99 


<5.a0  ml  USD  &f>>vM<iuHc,  ti49 


«J0  mJ  U.7i  Linmi  Sofiu. «  «9 ' 

fj.oo  •«(  JJ  50  f .Ky  Silk.,  yd.  tin 

-A«  MMHm.ol  of  M.Mh  dr«.  .,lu.  r*«..Ui.»  .f 
u'loo.  I.fl.t..  tod  r^d«  loodr..  kn  ^.J    .Wh 

JJOO  W «J0 5.(t  Po»I«u,  ifrf..  J?  » 


/«i;SiH  /m)>Of(«/  Poojct.  yJ..  69c 

nurl.l  U.I.,  ...Id  H...  l"  "l'  .1  II  it 

S7  00  BnaJeJ  Sclim.  yd.S}9a 


Anniversary  Sa  c  of  Washable  Materials 

«5c  Plain  WhiUValU.  yd.  While  or  Flah  Pliat  Ctpt.  ya,d, 

■  (  »(  2300  7.nl'  Id  ».ll  toiiH-  fro.  3  lo  10  _    _ 
kul  Krf.rt   Brrtk.n.)i»   .od   C""   JO"   »  Z    Zg\ 

,o»-..i„.k^t,b...,-....U    Sui,.M.,o,  OOC 


«.75  Pint  Nalnscak,  pi«t.  $4.S9 

5*  P^VteVoi/c.  59<r 
«5e  WAife  Ski'l'mt.  ycJ,  75c 
Xlfc'tfte  pS  Pof/e.'Wc 

sijiTJicy  y^ii?i^J.  99c 


l/u/o/  JJ.75  jroJc  Rolinc.  J/  J9 
SlSOPiice  Lo'ng-Clolh'al  i2  S9 
49c  Diets  Cinghami,  yaxi,  39c 
PoifcV  (o'Sc  "o7  W"  ""  '"" 

jrodfo'/K7Df"''si!i»Hs9c 

il.wifime  Ci^ih^.'yaij.  69c 


.uld.o,!,..  or.rl,  i«i<.        H  7i* 
75e  Pliu^Ciepej^iJ.  49c^ 

75c'iMncmK</  Po(>/ir..  ymJ.  49c 

?ic  Shilling  MaJiai.  yaij,  59c 

43c  Dieu  Petcale,  yetd,  33e 
"iilO  Piece  Lang  Cloth,  14  30 
Fancy  Oahng  Flannel,  yd.,  39e 


33c  AmoJteag  Dieu  Gingham,  yard. 


55c  32-inch  KiJJie-Clolh,  yaid. 


H.r«l.»ili.nreiobuy  a  foTlMii>.T.  iBf  «i>Drr.       ^^mm         f  -A  .iroop,   ....y   m.irr..i   lor   ooy.     ....i.  .no        ^^  --w 
..irrn,  m  .,r..or.l,l,  .oi.r..    W,  r >  ,.(  Hi.  r.jl,.      ^  Q  (J      R,l,.ll.  r.l.r,  .od  .  r.r,.  .«.noi,ol  W^tal  Iroo.        OJ'C 


Anniversary  Sale 
of  Bed  Spreads 

Big  vattitj  lor  home  and  opailmeni  tuet 


I  J6.50  and  i750  Colored  Bed  Spiecdi, 

;l°^.™•.",'.''Mi■.J,'l'^,;,'l°!,y    w Ot^fsj 


Sale  of  Crochet  Spreads 

WnOCnxhel,  IttiW,  K.Moptd   <ut  torrnn.  ki     «  19 

MMCtt>^h.t.n»98.'h««n...l.o-l..  Mh fcjM 

WOOCroehM   M»M^l.erapH  ...d..  »- h     U  Vi 

•600  S«1«^;6(8«'.^'t|^»>«d  «nd<   t»h     »4  40 

Ripple  ^  bimity  Spreads 


<BB(4  80«0  5pr*»<U.  k 


Anniocnary  S«/< 

Household  Muslins 

^Th"*  tie  iip»<'i«U  thit  ibYifty  lwo»<«'.»»«  wUI  •tpek  up  tn      Pait 
li»«ly*onf  >ulil  10  d««1fn  abd  •»  r«««r»t  figbi  lo  limit  qu^ninj 

40c  Bleached  Muslins 

YARD,  29c 

-3S  .-.<■»>••  ■■-i*  »Dd  >■  k  food.  Mti  ftnithH  nutJ'D  fo»  TiBilr  itM 

45c  Unbleached  Muslins 
55c  Pillow  Casing 

YARD,  49c 

-42  inch**  "id*.    A  c«xl  ^•••T  f«*«  •*^  '**"T  •*'^*  *'  **^*{  " 
coDp«rtd  wiib  prtMOt  a*rk«t-pncM.    13»«nil  piUow  «•••  *^1^ 


f/io/  ate  mMt  wanlal  jml  now — all  txry  /kuj 

Anniversary  Sale 
Dress  Goods 

S600  "Bokmy"  Naoy  Sttgr.  ^d. 

i.u-i,  for  d„»,^  -".'•>■'<.  "^ '-  X"  ^o.cfy 


17.75  "Piieiihy,"  Clolh,  13 9i 


$7.30  Spoil!  Velanr.fS  99 
16.00  All-Waal  Plaidi,  Ut9 
f7  30  Spaeli  Plaidi.  t4  S9 


S900U'hlleSeige,yd.,f7.39 

While  FienJiSeige'tSM 

t3.00WhiuCaclini.f3.9S 

17.65  Velixl  Ctrduny,  VM 


Anniversary  Sale  of  Bedding 


EXTRA— il.9S  Hemmed  Sheet,  lo, 

V.., i..i»...»d».-.'"'"«-  "I. >-'»■•  OJC.v/O 


5Sc  PlHoU)  COKJ.  J9c 

iJ.OO  Ufwj  Sheth,  t230 

Ow  'Coianada"  Shedi: 


17  75  Sheet,  at  1249 
Pillaia  Cmm. 


{7000  AM  Roha.  SI300 

Bed  Blankets 


UTS,  Cr*r.  MiT"  ^ 

•  ti.  'Shik<.  UiM  Beaev*  I 


Bed  Comforters 


Customers'  Needs  are  Featured 


Here  are  sentences  out  of  three  of  the  items : 
From  the  dress  goods  section — " Silh  and  ivool  mixed  weaves  that 
are  so  much  in  demand  for  pleated  shirts  or  dresses." 

From  the  bedding  department — ''They  are  made  exclusively  for 


us.' 


40  RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 

From  the  washable  materials — ^'Very  sheer  quality  for  the  dainty 
summer  frocks  and  ivaists." 

From  the  silk  section — "A  good  dependable  grade  that  will  give 
long  service." 

From  the  household  muslins  section — "Heavy  enough  for  pillow 
cases  and  sheets  and  will  soon  launder  white." 

From  the  bedspreads  section — "Very  dainty  and  will  harmonize 
with  finest  furnishings." 

Consider  the  selling  value  of  items  with  definite  ideas  in  them 
such  as  these  sentences  indicate.  They  not  only  sell  goods  but  furnish 
the  reader  of  the  ad  with  ideas  as  to  the  use  and  application  of  the 
merchandise.  All  the  regular  customers  of  the  store  read  such  items 
^y\i\\  interest,  and  everyone  else  who  reads  the  paper  will  receive  a 
decisive  buying  impulse  from  the  ideas  contained  in  such  items.  That 
is  why  this  ad  is  a  goodwill-building  ad.  It  tells  the  customers  some- 
thing definite  besides  the  color,  weight,  texture  and  design  or  price 
of  the  goods,  while  the  ordinary  item  tells  only  things  the  customer 
already  knows.  The  items  quoted  above  create  buying  interest,  and 
buj^ing  interest  attracts  the  attention  of  customers  who  are  always  on 
the  lookout  for  goods  and  ideas. 

It  does  not  require  a  \qyy  long  series  of  ads  of  this  kind  before 
new  people  begin  to  filter  into  your  store,  one,  two,  five  and  ten  a  day 
until,  before  you  know  it,  your  business  has  increased  because  your 
merchandise  interests  them. 

What  could  be  simpler  or  more  profitable  than  carefull}^  written 
ads  that  cost  no  more  than  carelessly  written  ones?  All  the  store  ad  man 
needs  to  know  is  the  difference  between  an  ad  that  is  merely  a  bulletin 
of  known  facts  and  one  that  has  the  facts  plus  ideas  to  fit  them.  And 
the  difference  will  be  that  one  sells  goods  only  while  the  other  sells 
the  institution  behind  the  goods  or  its  ideas,  which  amounts  to  the 
same  thing. 

Smallest    Store    an    Institution 

Do  not  forget  that  your  store  is  an  institution,  no  matter  how 
small  it  may  be  or  how  limited  its  clientele  of  customers  may  be.  It 
is  the  merchandise  after  all  that  people  buy,  but  they  are  attracted 
to  and  remember  goods  with  ideas  attached;  that  is,  descriptions  of 
goods  that  contain  an  idea. 

You  can  build  your  business  and  expand  it  by  putting  the  same 
intelligence  into  your  ads  that  you  put  into  your  study  of  the  market 
and  the  study  of  serving  customers  well. 

Prestige  or  goodwill  can  be  threaded  throughout  every  headline, 
introductory  illustration,  sub-caption  and  editorial  in  your  ads.  Good- 
will is  an  asset  upon  which  no  money  value  can  be  placed  because  it 
means  just  what  it  says,  "goodwill" — the  will  to  favor  your  store  on 
the  part  of  the  buying  public. 


LESSON  XI 

Season  Advertising  Is  Founded  on  Store  News 

RETAIL  advertising  is  an  influence.  Each  ad  the  store  runs  in- 
creases the  influence  every  time  a  customer  reads  it.  This  is  just 
as  true  of  the  smaller  store  in  the  lesser  town  or  city  as  it  is  of  the 
big  store  in  the  bigger  cities  which  use  maybe  a  page  a  day.  It  isn't 
the  page  or  the  half  page  but  what  goes  into  it  that  counts.  Also  the 
followup  ad  counts  and  the  next  followup.  Here  are  some  ideas  on  how 
to  open  a  fall  campaign  of  advertising  and  how  to  follow  it  up  until 
the  season  is  well  under  way  or  merges  into  another  season. 

Fall  is  the  season  of  new  activities  in  the  home  and  in  the  store. 
New  goods  are  in  stock  ready  to  supply  the  fall  needs  of  individuals 
and  householders  in  your  store  and  every  other  store  like  it  in  your 
city  or  town. 

What  kind  of  ads  will  you  use  and  how  many  and  how  much  space? 
These  are  the  questions  that  need  answering  before  the  fall  schedule 
is  perfected.  To  make  the  answer  to  these  questions  fit  individual  needs 
is  impossible  without  special  data  from  each  store,  so  let  us  take  an 
average  case  as  a  basis.  We  shall  assume  that  yours  is  the  average 
size  store  in  a  city  of  ten  thousand  more  or  less.  You  used  on  an  aver- 
age last  year  three  columns  of  space  every  other  day,  six  days  a  .week. 
That  amounts  to  180  inches  a  week  if  the  page  depth  is  20  inches.  It 
will  do  for  illustration  anyway.  You  may  use  twice  or  only  half  that 
much  but  do  the  apportioning  yourself.  What  counts  here  is  the  idea. 
Here's  a  suggestion: 

Open  the  season  with,  say,  a  four-column  ad.  Feature  four  of  the 
leading  season  line  of  goods  such  as  the  ready-to-wear,  especially  cloaks 
and  suits,  millinery,  shoes  and  wool  dress  goods.  Use  the  rest  of  the 
space  for  carpets  and  rugs,  draperies,  etc.,  if  they  are  carried,  and 
small  furnishings,  neckwear,  gloves,  corsets,  hosiery  and  so  on.  These 
may  not  all  be  affected  by  style  elements  but  most  of  them  will  be  in 
the  early  fall,  especially  the  ready-to-wear,  shoes  and  furnishings. 

Feature  the  four  lines  mentioned  by  giving  them  fairly  good  space, 
an  illustration  or  two  and  put  a  few  items  in  on  the  other  departments. 
The  idea  is  to  give  the  opening  advertisement  enough  interest  and  grip 
to  start  the  public  to  thinking  about  the  store.  That  is  why  the  first  of 
the  opening  ads  is  so  important.  Everything  about  it  is  important, 
but  the  main  headline  and  the  introductory  are  vitally  so.  They  need 
to  carry  a  real  idea  set  forth  in  simple  but  interesting  language. 

41 


42 


RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 


Do  not  above  all  tilings  call  the  opening  ad  a  sale.  Not  even  if  it 
is  one,  which  is  the  worst  thing  it  could  be.  Instead  of  a  sale  event, 
adopt  an  exhibit  of  some  kind,  like  '^Advance  Exhibition  of  Fall  Goods." 


Final  Clearauice  Prices  on 


THE  NEW 


Sommer  Blouises  B  TAILLEUR  SUITS 


pnm^  Im(.  *a«  mhI  Anv-quutri  \rnfAt  Jtrw*,  ttmmd  m  M|uar«  nwk.  rrfuUtNn  •fyfc 

faiM  FrCKk  v*^  (»(MM  Md  MgWwH       AkaSpwlBlMMBhDCT  -•AmICTmU.     (U- 
dMdwUWtli       ' 

$  5.95  Blouses  at  H.^  l  $  9.75  Blousts  aK  $5.95  ( 
-  $  7.95  Blouses  at   $4.95  |  $11.95  Blouses  at.. $6.95 
$13.95  BUises  a!.  $8.95 


Women's  Regular  $18.00  ^1  ^  - 

Laird-Scliober  Brown  Pumps'       *  ^ 

TV»  *»k  iS^  .riFKl  ifw  .l(^.«p  of  Sundrrd.  ol  -oro«  temono-  TV  Li.rd- 
5chct*t  Pump.  («  *«««>  »f«  U«nou»  »  iK*  bcM  r.-Jrt  ihroughoui  tKr  UftJ.  wd  Kun^ 
<lt«ii  t>l  U*'o  •^moi  u  wcB  M  iMndretli  ol  woiara  m  [Kvleiritory  »w  lAird-SchcUr 
PoVwt.T  iSf  iui  •ound.  Ve  offet  o«r  reguUi  $16  00  Brow*  KjJ  and  C«ll  Pump*  « 
Tor.rf  .nd  r<  Stria.  •mK  Tun  S«la  tftd  LXV  Hnk  •■  i>«  UrdSchob«i  OMVe— ALL 

5C£S  AND  »  ff)THS— a««  m>  S 1 1  8>. 


jnMthM  moMi.  «Hi««IK  dca(>UFd  (w  <hc  f 


At  a  Price  Range  from  $69.75 
to$197.50 

.The  New  Autumn  Dresses 


SpeciaUy  Priced  from  $42.50 
Up  to  $149.75 

New  Fall  Dresses   S*^  £00 

Specially  Priced  at ., 


A  Special  Exhibit  of  the  Newest 
MiUinery  Creations] 

MONDAY 


MKd  Worn  utuu  ID  fhfr  '.tnnu  ne*  Fall   •Kado. 

Very  Special  at  $35.00 


Other  Wash  Fabric  Spedal$^ 
for  Monday 


Sp«i«J  ELxKibcU  ot  New  M*rch«»i£M  in 


Sanger  Bed  Linens 

SpeciaUy  Priced 


^  o.  MJc.lmitaJnMiibCTof  New  FJlDrOMa 


Wash  Fabrics  Half  Price  Sweaters 


Sanger's  Special  August  Sale  of  Woolen  Fabrics 

Om  iloeki  an  omplele— ««  Maortncati  wtj^ttt^n  fewier — Aa(ic^I«  yaw  Fall  Kedii  <lumf  th«  Aufuai  Sak. 


Sanger  Silks  at  Special  Prices 


A  better  title  for  the  event  would  be  ''A  Storeful  of  New  Fall  Mer- 
chandise for  the  Home  and  for  Individual  Needs."  That  might  be  the 
general  name  of  the  event  .but  each  of  the  first  four  advertisements 
ought  to  have  one  individual  title  of  its  own.  Here  are  four  suggestions 
for  ads  1,  2,  3  and  4  to  be  run  in  a  connected  series  to  feature  the  same 
event. 

Title  for  first  ad:  ''Today's  News  of  the  New  Fall  Stocks— There 
Is  a  Storeful  Just  Like  the  Items  Featured  Here." 

Title  for  the  second  ad:  ''Yesterday's  Exhibit  of  New  Goods  In- 
terested Hundreds.  Hero  Are  a  Few  More  Typical  Items.  Notice  the 
Prices  and  the  Qualities." 


SEASON   ADVERTISIN<>   IS    FOUNDED  43 

Title  for  the  third  ad :  * '  New  Fall  Dresses  Are  Leaders  for  Tomor- 
row in  Our  Great  Opening  Exhibit — Study  These  Prices  as  You  Read 
the  Descriptions  of  Goods." 

Title  for  fourth  ad :  '  *  Tomorrow  Is  the  End  of  Our  Opening  Week 
and  Here  Are  Some  Interesting  Leaders — Fall  Is  Just  Starting.  Start 
Early  with  Your  Shopping." 

These  headlines  suggest  the  treatment  of  the  introductory,  but 
each  store  would  naturally  be  better  able  than  an  outsider  to  write  that 
introductory.    But  here  are  some  suggestions,  five  of  them : 

1.  Talk  about  the  season  and  its  merchandise  needs. 

2.  Talk  about  how  to  use  the  goods.    People  know  how  to  buy  them. 

3.  Speak  of  the  different  kinds  of  interest  in  fall  merchandise — 
new  styles,  new  patterns,  new  shades  and  weaves,  new  qualities  and 
new  assortment. 

4.  Say  a  word  or  two  about  the  kind  of  customers  who  like  new 
things  for  fall. 

5.  Write  a  ten-word  introductory  for  each  separate  section  of  the 
ad  so  as  to  link  it  with  the  general  theme  of  the  campaign — fall  opening 
is  the  general  theme. 

Think  in  Terms  of  the  Customer 

Keep  in  mind  people  do  not  think  as  you  do  of  your  goods,  not 
at  least  until  they  have  bought  them.  Use  your  advertising  appeal  to 
tell  the  customers  what  to  think  about  the  new  things.  Their  natural 
needs  will  do  the  rest.  And  be  sure  to  link  the  first  ad  with  the  second 
at  least  in  a  merchandising  way.    Here  is  how: 

Notice  the  layout  and  general  merchandising  of  the  two  ads  repro- 
duced here.  One  of  them  is  a  good  example  of  an  advance  opening 
ad— the  one  with  the  section  headed  ''The  New  Tailleur  Suits."  The 
other  one  is  a  good  example  of  a  followup,  although  it  is  the  ad  of  a 
different  store.  Notice  that  what  is  featured  in  the  first  ad  is  secondary 
in  the  second  and  what  is  first  in  the  second  ad  is  se'condary  in  the\ 
first.  Ready-to-wear  is  the  leader  in  the  first  ad,  household  staples  is 
the  leader  in  the  second  ad.  If  they  w^ere  run  consecutively  by  the 
same  store  the  second  ad  would  serve  as  a  good  followup  so  far  as  mer- 
chandising goes. 

Most  stores  make  the  mistake  at  fall  opening  time  of  featuring 
ready-to-wear  for  four  or  five  weeks  to  the  exclusion  of  staple  and 
household  lines.  Feature  the  style  lines,  of  course,  but  keep  some  of 
the  regular  staples  in  the  ads  all  during  fall  advertising. 

Fall  announcements  with  an  art  design  of  some  kind  and  a  hundred 
words  of  general  publicity  are  going  out  of  date.  Merchandise  ads  are 
the  thing  for  openings.  People  want  to  know  what  you've  got  and  what 
they  can  use  it  for.    Put  that  in  your  copy. 


LESSON  XII 
Complete  Publicity  in  Stores  Is  Threefold 

NOW  and  then  there  appears  in  the  want  ad  columns  of  trade  papers 
and  newspapers  a  want  ad  worded  to  this  effect :  "Wanted — com- 
bination window  display  man,  card  writer  and  advertising  man  .... 
experienced,  etc." 

The  store  advertising  for  a  combination  man  has  in  mind  a  man 
who  can  write  ads,  trim  mndows  and  print  show  cards.  If  the  want 
ad  went  on  to  say,  "Who  can  link  our  ads  with  our  windows  and  our 
goods ' '  it  would  express  the  idea  behind  this  article. 

More  than  any  other  type  of  store  the  smaller  to^vn  and  city  store 
needs  to  combine  the  power  of  windows,  show  cards  and  advertising 
copy  every  day  of  the  year.  It  is  not  enough  to  have  a  good  window 
now  and  then,  a  good  set  of  show  cards  some  other  time,  and  a  power- 
ful ad  another  day;  they  should  work  together  every  day  if  ads  are 
run  every  day.  If  ads  appear  only  every  other  day  or  tmce  weekly 
the  Avindows  and  show  cards  can  be  made  to  bridge  the  gap,  and  they 
will  do  it  better  if  the  three  publicity  factors  are  used  together  as  often 
as  possible. 

How  to  Combine  Publicity 

Here  is  a  concrete  example  of  linking  windows,  cards  and  ads: 
The  store  has  just  got  in  a  new  stock  of  fall  millinery.  It  is  to  be  put 
on  sale  Thursday  of  this  week.  It  is  the  kind  of  millinery  that  brings 
good  prices  for  a  short  season  and  then  goes  out  of  vogue  quickly  and 
cannot  be  sold  at  any  price.  The  season  for  millinery  is  about  at  its 
height  and  there  are  two  weeks  of  good  selling  season  left.  How  can 
you  push  this  millinery  for  all  it  is  worth  while  it  is  worth  it?  That 
question  has  been  asked  and  answered — sometime — in  every  store  in 
the  country.  Here  is  what  usually  happens  in  a  situation  outlined  as 
above :  The  hats  sell  well  for  three  days ;  then  they  sell  one  at  a  time 
until  something  new  crops  up,  and  then  they  must  be  marked  down, 
sometimes  to  an  actual  loss,  in  order  to  clear  them  out. 

Here  is  your  answer:  Put  in  a  good  display  of  the  hats,  one  or 
two  windows  if  the  merchandise  is  important  enough  for  that,  and  in 
the  department  use  show  cards  or  price  cards  similar  to  those  used  in 
the  windows  (small,  simply  lettered  cards  are  best).  Then  before  the 
sale  opens  feature  the  hats  in  a  good-sized  section  of  the  ad,  using  a 
facsimile  of  the  cards  as  a  price  mark.    This  can  be  done  with  type 

44 


COMPLETE  PUBLICITY  IN  STOEES  IS  THREEFOLD    45 

and  rule.  Then  write  a  line  or  two,  either  as  part  of  the  introductory  or 
as  part  of  the  descriptive  item  something  like  this:  **They  make  a 
splendid  display  in  our  fourth  street  window.  Look  almost  as  good  as 
when  correctly  dressed  women  wear  them." 

On  one  big  card  in  the  window  put  this  same  sentence.  This  links 
cards,  windows,  advertisement  and  millinery  in  the  mind  of  the  lady 
who  reads  the  ad  or  sees  the  window.  Remember  that  all  sales  originate 
in  the  customer's  mind.  Everything  that  calls  her  attention  to  a  special 
line  or  item  helps  make  her  want  that  special  item. 

Most  customers  look  at  windows  and  read  ads.  All  of  them  look 
at  display  cards,  especially  those  with  prices  on  them.  The  only  way 
they  can  get  a  threefold  impression  of  the  desirability  of  an  item  like, 
for  example,  a  beautiful  hat,  is  for  the  store  to  combine  that  impression 
in  its  cards,  windows  and  ads.  And  what  is  true  of  millinery  is  equally 
true  of  most  other  lines. 

Windows   Exert  Intimate   Influence 

In  reality  windows  should  be  the  basis  for  all  seasonal  advertising 
of  departments.  They  exert  an  influence  on  the  customer  when  she  is 
nearest  the  store  and  when  she  is  most  surely  in  a  buying  mood.  In 
other  words,  the  window  display  is  a  form  of  retail  advertising  whose 
drawing  power  is  in  the  thing  advertised  rather  than  words  written 
about  it,  as  is  an  ad. 

This  is  all  the  more  reason  why  the  newspaper  ad  should  carry 
a  description  of  the  window :  because  it  describes  advertising.  A  win- 
dow is  a  form  of  advertising,  while  an  advertisement  is  an  advertise- 
ment. The  show  card  or  price  card  comes  in  here ;  it  is  a  part  of  the 
window  display  whether  it  is  in  the  window  or  in  the  department. 

Combining  them  is  a  matter  of  plain  resourcefulness  and  ingenuity, 
but  when  they  are  combined  the  value  of  each  is  magnified  threefold. 

Always  follow  the  rule  that  every  department  of  your  business 
must  be  considered  in  relation  to  the  whole. 


LESSON  XIII 

Everyone  Has  Something  to  Buy 

ALL  the  principles  of  salesmanship  are  simple.  And  the  simplest 
-^^  of  all  may  be  expressed  in  these  words:  ** Everyone  has  some- 
thing to  buy."  You  "will  see  as  your  knowledge  of  the  nature  and 
purpose  of  selling  increases  why  this  principle  is  stated  in  terms  of  the 
purchaser  rather  than  the  seller. 

It  would  be  natural,  at  first  thought,  to  say  that  **  Everyone  has 
something  to  sell."  This  is  true  enough,  but  no  one  could  sell  a  thing 
if  someone  else  did  not  need  it  or  want  it. 

Salesmanship,  like  advertising,  is  based  on  merchandise,  goods, 
commodities.  If  no  one  needed  or  wanted  soap,  pianos,  automobiles  or 
shoes,  there  would  be  no  soap  salesmen  and  no  piano,  automobile,  shoe 
or  piano  salesmen.  Or  if  each  one  made  everything  he  needed,  as  was 
the  case  in  the  early  stages  of  society,  there  would  be  no  need  for  the 
business  of  selling;  there  would  be  no  principles  of  salesmanship. 

But  everyone  does  need  something  to  use  or  to  wear  or  to  eat 
all  the  time. 

That  is  why  salesmanship  is  the  most  universal  of  all  the  trades, 
crafts  and  professions.  Also,  the  fact  that  merchandise  touches  so 
closely  on  the  personal  life  of  people  makes  it  the  most  human  of  all 
businesses. 

The  retail  salesman  deals  directly  with  either  the  user  or  con- 
sumer of  the  goods.  Retail  salesmen  meet  their  customers  face  to 
face  in  the  presence  of  the  goods.  Wholesale  salesmen  meet  the  dealer, 
the  merchant,  who  sells  the  goods  to  the  consumer  or  user  of  it.  The 
specialty  salesman  sells  sometimes  to  the  consumer,  sometimes  to  the 
distributor,  depending  on  what  he  is  selling. 

Retail    Selling    for    Beginners 

This  series  of  studies  deals  largely  with  retail  selling — selling 
directly  to  the  consumer.  This  type  of  selling  is  best  suited  to  the 
needs  of  beginners.  Also  retail  selling  offers  more  breadth  of  view 
regarding  the  types  of  merchandise  upon  which  basic  principles  of  sell- 
ing depend,  and  a  wider  range  of  needs  which  customers  want  to 
supply  themselves.  Finally,  retail  merchandise  is  more  or  less  familiar 
to  all  of  us.  All  of  us  have  to  buy  goods  almost  every  day  and  we  are 
familiar  with  their  use  and  nature. 

46 


EVERYONE  HAS  SOMETHING  TO  BUY       47 

Selling  an  item  of  merchandise  to  a  person  wlio  needs  it  or  merely 
wants  it  is  a  fascinating  process  if  rightly  viewed  by  the  salesman. 
And  the  more  fascinating  it  is  to  the  salesman  the  easier  he  can  sell  it. 

LEARN  THIS  MOTTO  BY  HEART:  ''People  buy  goods  because 
they  want  them,  not  because  the  salesman  wants  to  sell  them." 


LESSON  XIV 

Good   Selling   Demands   Good  Thinking 

THERE  are  only  a  few  principles  of  salesmanship.  Here  is  the  first 
one  expressed  in  simple  terms:  *'A11  sales  begin  in  the  cus- 
tomer's mind  and  all  sales  are  finished  there."  This  means  that  the 
salesman's  work  is  primarily  head  work,  mental  work,  thinking. 

Prospective  customers  for  what  the  salesman  sells  think  of  it  in 
terms  of  their  own  needs,  not  the  salesman's  need  to  make  a  sale.  A 
customer  may  enter  a  store  with  the  express  purpose  of  buying  a  hat 
or  a  pair  of  shoes  or  a  fountain  pen  and  yet  not  be  in  a  buying  mood. 
He  may  go  out  finally  without  buying  something  he  really  wanted  or 
needed.  Then,  again,  he  may  come  in  with  no  intention  of  buying  a 
certain  article  and  go  out  with  it  under  his  arm  pleased  that  he 
bought  it. 

Whatever  the  customer  does  is  colored  by  what  he  thinks,  and  the 
salesman's  work  is  to  help  him  think  in  terms  of  what  he  wants. 

The  salesman's  first  duty  is  to  attract  the  customer's  attention;  the 
second  duty  is  to  find  out  what  the  customer's  train  of  thought  is  re- 
garding the  goods.  The  method — technique — of  doing  this  depends 
entirely  on  the  personality  of  the  salesman  and  the  nature  of  the  thing 
he  sells. 

Principle  Never  Varies 

Technique  in  selling  door  mats  is  different  from  that  used  in  selling 
oriental  rugs ;  different  in  selling  expensive  furs  than  in  selling  cheap 
jewelry;  different  in  selling  candy  than  in  selling  watches.  But  remem- 
ber it  is  the  method  only — the  technical  method — that  is  different.  The 
principle  is  the  same.  This  will  be  brought  out  in  detail  in  these  lessons 
when  the  series  on  specific  commodities  begins.  Before  this  part  of  the 
course  is  reached  the  student  ought  to  understand  what  the  essence, 
the  spirit,  of  salesmanship  is.  It  is  service.  When  you  sell  a  customer 
something  he  pays  you  for  two  things — the  goods  he  buys  and  the 
service  you  have  rendered  him.  Did  you  ever  get  a  bill  from  a  doctor 
or  a  lawyer?  You  did.  And  at  the  top  just  in  front  of  the  amount  you 
owe  is  the  phrase  "For  Service  Rendered."  Your  doctor's  bill  was 
$8.00.  You  paid  it  because  the  doctor  had  something  you  needed — 
professional  advice — and  because  he  gave  you  the  advice.  Two  things, 
you  see,  advice  and  the  giving  of  advice.    The  last  is  a  service.    You  sell 

48 


GOOD    SELLING   DEMANDS    GOOD    THINKING  49 

a  man  a  liat  for  $8.00.    He  pays  you  for  tlie  hat  and  all  you  did  to 
sell  the  hat  to  him — service. 

Learn  this  motto  by  heart:  ''All  selling  technique— method— is 
hased  on  the  service  that  goes  with  the  commodity  sold,  not  on  the 
nature  of  the  commodity." 


LESSON  XV 

Every   Sale   Implies   a   Human   Want 

'VJO  salesman  can  sell  goods  unless  he  knows  why  people  want 
■^  ^  them.  Every  item  of  goods  supplies  a  human  want,  and  a  'Svant" 
is  just  what  the  word  says — the  mental  expression  or  manifestation  of 
a  need  for  something.  You  want  a  drink;  you  want  sympathy;  you 
want  friendship;  you  want  a  suit  of  clothes.  You  get  none  of  these 
unless  you  make  your  need,  your  want,  kno^\Ti.  Reversing  the  order, 
you  as  a  salesman,  can  sell  nothing  unless  you  know  where  the  want 
originates,  how  it  happens  to  be  in  your  customer's  mind.  Is  he  led 
to  want  a  thing  because  it  is  a  luxury,  a  utility  commodity,  a  necessity, 
a  convenience,  style  or  fashion  commodity  or  an  impulse  commodity — 
something  bought  on  impulse  rather  than  a  previously  made  decision? 

The  basis  of  profitable  selling  at  retail  is  having  in  stock  goods  that 
supply  the  biggest  number  of  (1)  Natural  wants;  next  the  biggest 
number  of  (2)  Created  wants;  next,  the  biggest  number  of  (3)  Arti- 
ficial (sometimes  known  as  predatory)  wants;  and  last  the  biggest 
number  of  (4)  Individual  or  personal  wants. 

The  salesman's  chances  for  selling  are  naturally  in  the  same  order. 
He  can  sell  what  people  want  because  of  natural  reasons  better  than 
he  can  sell  what  they  want  for  created  artificial  or  individual  reasons. 

Natural  Wants  are  those  arising  from  elemental,  usually  i^hysical, 
needs — food,  clothing,  shelter  and  all  allied  reasons.  A  woman  buy- 
ing a  loaf  of  bread  or  a  sack  of  flour  is  supplying  a  natural  want.  There 
are  scores  of  other  examples  just  as  clear  as  these  which  any  student 
can  work  out  for  himself. 

Created  Wants  are  those  arising  from  needs  not  wholly  based  on 
the  nature  of  the  goods  but  on  the  use  of  them.  Such  needs  are  only 
partly  physical  and  cannot  be  traced  to  elemental  or  traditional  needs. 
A  person  buying  rubber  heels,  ready-to-use  foods,  such  as  patent 
breakfast  foods;  convenience  commodities,  such  as  vacuum  cleaners, 
electric  washing  machines,  washing  powders  or  soft  drinks,  is  sup- 
plying created  wants.  The  rubber  heel  is  a  splendid  example.  No 
one  needed  rubber  heels  until  someone  invented  them  and  interested 
"people  in  wearing  them  instead  of  leather  or  other  solid  heels.  Most 
goods  which  supply  created  wants  are  a  special  application  of  mer- 
chandise which  supplies  a  natural  want.  But  there  are  exceptions  to 
this  rule.    For  example,  the  need  for  cotton  blankets  has  no  relation 

50 


EVERY   SALE    IMPLIES   A   HUMAN   WANT  51 

to  the  need  for  woolen  blankets,  a  traditional  need.  You  will  hear 
more  about  this  in  later  lessons. 

Artificial  Wants  arise  from  the  need  for  goods  which  supply  a 
strong  mental  or  temperamental  need.  When  a  person  buys  perfume, 
valuable  paintings,  expensive  automobiles,  diamonds  or  other  gems 
he  is  supplying  artificial  wants.  Not  artificial  in  the  sense  that  is 
usually  put  on  the  word  artificial — but  in  the  sense  of  the  goods  having 
no  definite  basis  in  economic  need.  You  can  really  need  a  diamond 
but  not  in  the  sense  that  you  need  bread.  Artificial  wants  are  some- 
times referred  to  as  spiritual  wants,  especially  when  they  are  based 
on  the  needs  for  books,  literature,  mu.sic,  art,  ease,  comfort  or  friend- 
ship, if  these  things  could  be  classed  as  commodities. 

If  an  artificial  want  is  not  spiritual  it  is  predatory,  meaning  the 
customer  buys  it  because  she  wants  it  and  has  the  money,  not  because 
she  can  claim  she  needs  the  commodity. 

Individual  Wants  include  many  of  those  coming  under  the  three 
other  classifications  but  with  the  distinction  that  they  are  modified  by 
the  personal  viewpoint  of  a  single  individual  rather  than  a  group  of 
individuals  with  the  same  needs. 

When  a  woman  is  buying  silk  stockings  or  a  red  sweater  or  a  hat 
with  a  wide  drooping  brim  she  is  supplying  an  individual  need  for 
the  kind  of  goods  she  is  buying.  Keep  in  mind,  however,  that  other 
women  may  buy  the  same  things  with  a  wholly  different  reason. 

What  People  Think  of  Goods 

Thus  it  is  plain  that  wants  classified  as  individual  are  so  classified 
because  of  what  the  individual  purchaser  thinks  of  them,  rather  than 
any  conventional  or  set  usage.  The  need  for  goods  that  supply  indi- 
vidual wants  usually  arises  from  a  personal  estimate  of  the  use  to 
which  such  goods  are  to  be  put  rather  than  the  seller's  or  even  the 
manufacturer's  idea  of  what  they  ought  to  be  used  for. 

'These  four  types  of  wants  will  be  referred  to  continually  in  lessons 
where  the  method  of  selling  specified  commodities  is  dealt  with.  So  try 
to  learn  their  meaning  and  application.  Select  twenty  things  you  use 
every  day  and  try  to  classify  them  under  the  four  heads — natural, 
created,  artificial  and  individual  wants. 

Learn  this  motto  by  heart:  '* Human  wants  are  the  connecting  links 
between  the  customer  and  the  goods  he  buys — they  are  common  ground 
on  which  both  the  salesman  and  the  customer  stand. ' ' 


LESSON  XVI 
Study   Merchandise   While   Selling   It 

SUCCESSFUL  advertising  men  and  successful  salesmen  know  their 
goods.  They  must  know  other  things,  among  them  human  nature 
and  how  it  reacts  to  sales  appeal,  but  first  of  all  they  know  merchan- 
dise— its  use,  its  value  and  its  meaning. 

If  you  expect  to  excel  either  as  an  advertising  man  or  a  salesman 
you  must  begin  now  the  systematic  study  of  the  things  you  will  some 
day  advertise  and  sell. 

You  do  not  have  to  own  a  store  or  a  manufacturing  plant  in  order 
to  study  merchandise;  you  do  not  even  need  to  work  in  a  store  to 
begin  your  study  of  goods,  although  retail  experience  would  be  most 
valuable.  You  can  begin  with  the  things  you  wear,  eat  and  use;  you 
can  begin  with  the  goods  in  your  room  or  your  home.  They  are  mer- 
chandise just  as  truly  as  if  they  were  in  the  factory  where  they  were 
made  or  in  the  store  where  they  were  bought — the  carpets,  rugs,  stoves, 
pictures,  curtains,  dishes.  Anything  and  everything  that  is  needed 
and  used  by  an  individual,  a  group  of  individuals,  a  household,  is 
merchandise  and  was  once  sold  by  someone  just  as  it  was  bought  by 
someone. 

Everything  worn,  consumed  or  used  is  goods,  merchandise,  and  has 
its  classification  according  to  its  use,  who  uses  it  and  its  nature.  To 
begin  to  study  merchandise  intelligently  you  must  learn  the  different 
classifications  and  their  meanings  by  putting  the  classifications  into 
groups. 

There  are  three  broad  groupings  of  merchandise  as  follows: 

(A)  Merchandise  simply  viewed  as  stocks  in  a  store  is  divided  into 
staples,  novelties,  specialties. 

(B)  Merchandise  viewed  as  to  the  needs  it  supplies  to  customer  is 
divided  into  fashion  or  style  goods,  necessities,  utilities,  convenience 
goods,  shopping  or  impulse  goods  and  luxuries. 

(C)  Merchandise  viewed  as  to  its  use  by  customers  is  divided  into 
personal-use  goods,  consumption  goods,  family  goods,  general-use 
goods,  special-use  goods.  These  groups  will  be  dealt  with  in  detail 
later  on.  For  the  time  being  just  keep  in  mind  that  you  need  to  know 
the  meaning  of  these  groups  in  order  to  formulate  advertising  and 
selling  plans  and  arguments  for  them. 

You  can  readily  see  that  group  A  is  classified  on  the  basis  of  the 
selling  nature  of  the  goods  and  not  its  use,  but  groups  B  and  C  are 

52  ; 


STUDY   MERCHANDISE   WHILE    SELLING   IT  53 

classified  on  a  basis  of  the  use-nature  of  the  goods.  Keep  in  mind 
also  that  these  three  groups  include  not  only  goods  sold  at  retail,  but 
all  kinds  of  goods,  nationally  advertised,  unbranded,  goods  sold  at 
wholesale  and  as  specialties. 

Reread  the  groupings  several  times  and  get  them  firmly  fixed  in 
your  memory,  especially  before  you  begin  on  the  next  lesson  which 
will  combine  some  more  merchandise  information  of  groups  and  a 
special  rule  for  the  study  of  selling  goods  out  of  these  groups. 

Commit  This  Litde  General  Bit  of  Selling  Wisdom  to  Memory: 

Every  item  of  goods  is  intended  to  fill  a  real  wmit  of  some  hind; 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  goods  made  merely  to  sell.  It  is  made  to  use 
and  it  must  be  sold  on  that  basis. 


LESSON  XVII 

Everybody  Has  Something  to  Sell 

"Tj^VERYBODY  has  something  to  sell"  is  a  common  axiom  in  the  busi- 
A-'  ness  of  selling.  ''Everybody  has  something  to  buy"  is  just  as  true 
an  axiom  and  a  most  important  one  in  the  study  of  merchandise.  Every 
line,  every  kind,  every  class  and  every  item  of  goods  is  made  to  serve 
the  needs  of  someone.  And  it  is  this  someone's  needs  which  form  the 
basis  of  every  advertising  and  selling  campaign. 

Do  not  get  the  impression  that  the  goods  you  see  on  store  shelves 
and  in  store  windows  v^^ere  put  there  in  the  hope  that  someone  would 
need  them.  iThe  storekeeper  knows  someone  needs  them.  He  has 
the  goods  on  his  shelves  and  in  his  windows  to  remind  the  customer 
of  her  needs,  both  those  she  is  conscious  of  and  those  she  is  likely  to 
want  as  soon  as  she  sees  the  goods  to  fill  the  needs  and  to  supply  the 
wants.  Some  wants  are  latent,  undeveloped;  others  are  highly  de- 
veloped, always  present  in  the  customer's  mind.  It  is  the  storekeeper's 
and  his  salesman's  privilege  to  supply  both  kinds  of  wants. 

Some  kinds  of  goods  attract  more  quickly  the  attention  of  the  cus- 
tomer with  conscious  wants,  others  attract  people  with  unconscious 
or  latent  wants.  The  second  grouping  of  goods,  C  of  the  last  lesson, 
gives  you  the  key  to  how  goods  supply  wants  by  showing  you  how 
goods  are  classified  as  to  who  uses  them. 

Let  us  take  the  third  grouping  and  analyze  it  as  we  analyzed  group 
B  in  the  first  lesson.  Here  are  the  five  classifications  under  group  B 
described  as  to  their  meaning: 

Personal-use  goods  is  any  commodity  bought  to  be  used  particu- 
larly by  an  individual  such  as  clothing,  a  tooth  brush,  or  a  toilet  article, 
candy,  a  watch,  a  bracelet — anything  not  for  the  use  of  several  in- 
dividuals. 

Consumption  goods  is  anything  which  has  to  be  used  up  in  order  to 
get  the  benefit  of  it.  Items  coming  under  the  personal-use  classification 
are  in  a  broad  sense  consumption  goods,  but  in  the  narrow  sense  some 
of  them  are  not.  A  watch  is  not  used  up,  consumed,  when  it  tells  time, 
but  soap,  candy,  tooth  paste,  scouring  powder,  lemonade,  cigars  and 
tobacco  are  actually  consumed,  destroyed  in  a  sense,  before  the  cus- 
tomer gets  full  satisfaction  and  value  out  of  them. 

Family-use  goods  are  commodities  exactly  opposed  in  use  to  per- 
sonal-use goods.  They  are  used  by  several  or  many  people,  such  as 
rugs  on  the  floor,  dishes  on  the  breakfast  table,  hat  racks  in  the  hall, 

54 


EVERYBODY  HAS   SOMETHING  TO  SELL  55 

the  bookcase  or  reading  table  in  the  library,  the  mantelpiece,  the  fire- 
place, the  chairs  and  so  on.  Any  one  can  step  on  the  rug,  sit  in  the 
chairs,  look  at  the  pictures,  but  only  one  person  uses  father's  tooth 
brush  or  wears  his  pajamas.  Tliey  are  his  personal-use  goods;  the 
others  are  for  the  family  and  its  guests. 

General-use  goods  form  a  sub-classification  of  family-use  goods, 
such  as  the  piano,  the  automobile,  the  swing  on  the  front  porch,  the 
doormat.  These  are  bought  primarily  for  the  household  perhaps,  but 
their  nature  is  not  changed  even  when  they  are  used  by  outsiders  or 
strangers.  Their  use  is  not  modified  by  the  personal  standing  of  the 
user. 

Special-use  goods  are  commodities  bought  to  fill  a  special  need 
aside  from  the  need  of  the  purchaser,  such  as  toys,  electric  fixtures, 
books,  skates,  electric  light  bulbs,  flowers,  etc.  Toys  are  bought  for 
something  aside  from  their  merchandise  value — they  are  goods  to 
amuse  the  children.  Skates  are  for  use  in  sports ;  electric  bulbs  furnish 
light  from  current;  books  furnish  diversion  and  inspiration;  flowers 
express  sentiment. 

A  Basis  for  Self  Help 

Now,  why  is  it  necessary  to  consider  the  shades  of  meaning  brought 
out  by  group  C?  Because  you  must  learn  to  sell  goods  on  the  basis 
of  what  they  are  used  for  and  who  uses  them.  This  viewpoint  is  still 
more  important  in  advertising,  writing  copy  that  sells  goods,  as  you 
will  see  in  future  lessons. 

Keep  in  mind  that  groups  B  and  C  may  refer  to  the  same  goods, 
but  in  a  different  light;  the  first  refers  to  them  as  to  the  needs  they 
fill,  the  second  refers  to  how  they  are  used.  Get  this  clearly  in  mind 
and  commit  it  to  memory: 

The  customer  hugs  luhat  he  hugs  hecause  it  will  serine  him;  how  he 
uses  the  goods  gives  it  the  final  classification,  the  one  all  selling  and\ 
advertising  appeal  must  he  hased  on. 


LESSON  XVIII 
Wants   Give   Customers   the   Buying   Impulse 

EVERY  human  being  in  the  world  has  certain  needs  for  goods, 
These  needs  are  the  reflections  of  wants  that  exist  in  the  mind. 
Your  sister  wants  a  piano,  not  because  there  are  pianos  for  sale,  but 
because  of  the  thing  a  piano  will  do  for  her — interpret  music.  The 
piano  does  not  put  the  want  in  her  mind,  it  only  awakens  it.  Nature 
put  the  want  into  your  sister's  mind,  in  a  mysterious  way  known 
only  by  nature,  just  as  the  want  for  food,  clothing  and  shelter  were  put 
into  your  sister's  mind  or  yours. 

In  all  probability  the  want  for  music  as  reflected  in  your  sister's 
being  is  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years  old,  inherited  from  her  an- 
cestors of  the  primitive  caveman  period  of  the  human  race.  There 
were  no  pianos  then  but  there  was  crude  music,  just  as  there  is  today 
with  the  lowest  types  of  humanity,  savages  and  cannibals  in  the  jungles. 

Civilization  has  produced  the  piano  to  supply  the  constantly 
heightening  quality  of  the  demand  of  the  human  race  for  music.  Other- 
wise your  sister  would  be  satisfied  with  the  crude  sounds  of  the  Indian 
tom-tom  or  the  log  drums  of  the  South  Sea  Islanders. 

There  would  be  no  pianos  in  the  stores  and  no  piano  salesmen  if 
your  sister  and  thousands  of  women  like  her  did  not  need  music.  Be- 
cause there  are  thousands  of  such  people  you  see  pianos  for  sale  every- 
where. 

Now  to  sell  a  piano  the  salesman  needs  to  understand  the  want  for 
music — piano  music — and  the  way  the  piano  supplies  this  want.  Also 
the  nature  of  the  customer  who  needs  music.  Three  things  the  sales- 
man must  understand:  (1)  the  want,  (2)  the  way  a  piano  fills  it,  (3) 
the  person  with  the  want — needs,  goods  and  people. 

Gret  this  firmly  in  mind  for  it  is  the  basis  of  the  next  three  lessons 
of  this  series.  They  deal  with  the  different  kinds  of  wants  and  the 
selling  i-ules  that  supply  them.  Go  into  a  piano  store  this  week  and 
listen  to  a  salesman  as  he  tries  to  sell  a  piano  to  a  customer.  See  if 
you  can  trace  the  three  kinds  of  knowledge  he  is  using.  [Then  work  up 
a  piano-selling  argument  of  your  own. 

Keep  in  mind  that  the  piano  salesman  must  appeal  to  a  want  in  his 

66 


WANTS    GIVE    CUSTOMERS    THE   BUYING   IMPULSE    57 

customer  which  he  himself  has  never  experienced.    He  may  not  like 
pianos  or  piano-mnsic  at  all,  you  know,  and  still  be  a  good  salesman. 

This  Is  Worth  Remembering: 

Different  goods  supply  different  wants  and  there  are  five  big  groups 
of  wants.  They  will  he  explained  in  the  next  lesson.  See  if  you  can 
think  up  five  kinds  of  wants  supplied  by  five  different  classes  of  goods. 


LESSON  XIX 

How  to   Group  People's  Needs 

A  FAMOUS  merchant  took  a  young  friend  through  his  store,  one 
-^^of  the  largest  in  the  world.  After  they  had  traversed  floor  after 
floor  and  looked  at  hundreds  of  displays  of  merchandise  on  tables, 
shelves  and  counters,  the  merchant  asked  his  young  friend  what  he 
thought  of  the  store.  The  young  man  answered:  ''It  certainly  is  full 
of  many  kinds  of  goods;  how  mil  you  ever  sell  all  of  it?" 

Then  the  merchant  told  him  how.  He  said:  "All  these  kinds  of 
goods  represent  a  certain  type  of  human  want.  Our  salespeople  are 
taught  to  study  the  kinds  of  wants  which  each  class  of  our  goods  sup- 
plies.   We  never  could  sell  anything  if  we  simply  sold  goods  as  goods." 

Wants  we  have  seen  are  classified  as  (1)  natural  wants,  including 
food,  clothing,  music,  and  any  item  related  to  shelter;  artificial — some- 
times known  as  cultivated  wants — supplied  by  any  item  of  goods  whose 
use  depends  on  a  special  need  supplied  by  the  goods.  All  luxuries  come 
imder  this  head  and  such  specialties  as  breakfast  foods,  rubber  heels, 
canned  meats  and  so  on.  All  artificial  wants  are  modified  natural  wants, 
just  as  the  goods  supplying  them  are  modified  goods;  predatory  or 
caprice  wants,  the  kind  supplied  by  goods  bought  entirely  because  the 
customer  has  the  money  and  the  inclination  to  buy;  regardless  of  the 
actual  need  for  the  goods — jewelry,  automobiles,  silk  underwear,  fine 
and  expensive  clothing,  created  wants,  those  distinguished  from  purely 
artificial  wants  because  they  are  dependent  upon  a  special  need  created 
by  circumstances,  not  wholly  associated  with  goods — the  alarm  clock, 
the  typewriting  machine,  cake,  candy,  the  bicycle,  vacuum  icleaner 
and  similar  types  of  goods;  spiritual  wants,  these  are  supplied  by 
things  not  classed  as  merchandise  but  subject  to  the  rules  of  buying 
and  selling — literature,  art,  education,  travel,  companionship,  diver- 
sion, rest.  These,  of  course,  are  bought  or  sold  only  indirectly,  but 
there  is  a  certain  kind  of  trade  in  them. 

Only  the  first  four  types  of  wants  are  of  direct  interest  in  our  study 
of  merchandise,  and  these  only  because  they  form  the  basis  of  the  cus- 
tomer's attitude  toward  goods.  We  study  goods  because  we — some  of 
us  at  least — ^must  buy  or  sell  it.  And  all  the  selling  principles  are  based 
on  wants. 

You  will  recall  in  the  last  study  a  reference  to  the  kind  of  want 
supplied  by  a  piano.  You  will  be  surprised  to  find  that  this  want  comes 
under  the  group  classed  as  natural.    You  probably  thought  it  a  culti- 

58 


HOW  TO  GROUP  PEOPLE'S  NEEDS        59 

vated  or  predatory  want.  Not  at  all.  The  piano  supplies  an  elemental, 
inherent  want.  Love  of  music  is  natural,  taste  for  it  may  of  course  be 
cultivated,  but  we  are  dealing  here  with  wants  as  wants  and  the  kind  of 
goods  which  supply  them. 

In  the  two  following  lessons  you  will  be  told  how  an  understanding 
of  wants  is  a  help  in  selling.  And  you  will  need  to  refer  to  the  general 
classification  of  goods  given  in  the  first  lesson. 

Read  it  and  get  its  contents  clearly  in  mind.  Remember  what  the 
great  merchant  said  to  his  young  friend. 

The  next  time  you  are  in  a  department  store  see  how  many  types 
of  wants  you  can  classify  by  looking  at  the  goods  in  each  department. 
If  you  buy  anything  yourself  try  to  classify  the  want  you  are  supplying. 

Here  Is  a  Valuable  Secret: 

Goods  do  not  create  wmits,  except  indirectly;  they  supply  the  needs 
represented  hy  the  want  and  are  merely  material  symbols  of  a  mental 
state.    See  if  you,  cannot  make  yourself  agree  to  this. 


LESSON  XX 
How   Goods  Are   Grouped   for   Use 

BEFORE  reading  any  further  in  this  study  refer  to  the  merchandise 
chart  given  in  study  number  XVI.  You  will  see  there  the  first 
classification  indicated  by  capital  A:  staples,  novelties,  specialties. 
These  are  the  basis  of  store  stocks.  The  entire  stock  of  goods  in  any 
store  is  made  up  of  a  certain  percentage  of  each  kind.  The  store's 
selling  activities  so  far  as  kinds  of  goods  go  depend  on  the  amount  of 
each  of  these  classes  of  goods  in  stock.  Now  the  selling  principles 
which  rest  on  each  class : 

Staples  standardize  the  store's  market;  they  form  the  background 
for  all  sales  effort  put  forth  by  the  retail  organization  because  they  sup- 
ply known  and  established  wants.    'This  is  rule  lA. 

Novelties  stimidate  special  channels  of  trade  (selling)  creating  in- 
terest in  goods  by  giving  customers  new  viewpoints  about  staples.  A 
novelty  hat  stimulates  the  sale  of  staple  hats  and  brings  in  profit  in  ad- 
dition, and  so  on  through  the  entire  range  of  staples.    This  is  Rule  2A. 

Specialties  sustain  interest  in  general  sales  of  staples  and  novelties. 
They  are  usually  ' '  something  new  in  this  or  that. ' '  They  sell  rapidly 
and  usually  go  out  of  vogue  quickly  but  are  constantly  replaced  by 
new  items  of  their  kind.  Take  an  example  from  the  toy  department: 
dolls,  blocks  and  hobby  horses  are  staples;  mechanical  toys  like  rail- 
roads, engines  and  construction  toys  are  specialties;  little  bugs  that 
crawl  when  wound  up,  dolls  that  tumble,  birds  that  squeak,  are  novel- 
ties. Each  has  its  selling  function  in  the  toy  department  as  outlined 
above.    Specialties  sustain  the  interest  of  customers.    This  is  Rule  3A. 

Now  the  group  marked  B :  This  group  is  the  basis  of  sales-building 
and  promotion.  Advertising,  window  trimming  and  interior  display — 
factors  in  selling — are  based  on  the  nature  of  group  B.  Here  are  the 
group  B  rules  for  each  type  of  goods : 

Rule  IB — convenience  goods  form  the  basis  of  general  selling  be- 
cause people  (customers)  are  constantly  in  need  of  goods  which  save 
time,  work  and  energy — ice-chests,  handbags,  hat  racks,  fireless  cook- 
ers, vacuum  cleaners,  ordinary  household  and  personal-use  utensils 
may  all  be  classed  as  convenience  goods. 

Rule  2B — necessities  form  the  basis  for  profitable  selling  in  many 
departments  of  stores  because  it  is  little  trouble  to  sell  goods  people 
must  have — food,  plain  clothing,  underwear,  shoes,  bed  clothes  and 
the  like. 

60 


HOW  GOODS  ARE  GROUPED  FOR  USE      61 

Rule  3B — utilities,  the  same  as  necessities  except  on  a  specialized 
scale,  since  utilities  have  no  other  appeal  than  usefulness,  not  beauty 
or  interest  like  pictures,  furniture  or  oriental  rugs,  utilities  include 
kitchen  utensils,  plain  dishes,  laundry  supplies  and  a  great  many  items 
properly  classed  as  convenience  goods.  All  utilities  are  convenience 
goods  but  not  all  convenience  goods  are  utilities. 

Rule  4B — shopping  or  impulse  goods  are  found  in  the  fancy  goods, 
toilet  goods  and  notion  departments.  They  form  the  basis  of  continu- 
ous selling  in  large  volume  but  at  small  profit.  People  buy  them 
largely  by  seeing  them — on  impulse — not  from  long  and  careful  de- 
liberation. Impulse  goods  lead  people  into  other  departments  of  the 
store.  A  woman  may  come  into  the  store  for  a  ten  cent  cake  of  soap 
and  finally  buy  a  $300  fur  piece. 

Rule  5B — luxuries  constitute  all  goods  bought  as  much  on  caprice 
as  on  utility  or  necessity.  Furs,  diamonds,  expensive  clothing.  Oriental 
rugs,  period  furniture,  are  typical.  They  are  bought  because  the  cus- 
tomer wants  them  and  has  the  money.  Luxuries  cover  a  large  range  of 
different  goods  and  are  sold  in  many  departments  of  the  store.  They 
produce  big  volume  of  sales  and  much  profit  with  small  sales  effort. 
They  bring  discriminating  customers  into  the  store. 

Rule  6B — fashion  goods  means  any  item  of  merchandise  whose  sale 
is  influenced  by  style  or  current  mode.  The  larger  and  more  expen- 
sive items  of  clothing  and  furnishings  are  good  examples,  so  are  gloves, 
shoes  and  millinery.  Fashion  goods  create  additional  markets  for 
ordinary  lines.  iThey  act  the  same  way  specialties  do  on  staples  in 
classification  A.    They  are  stimulative  in  effect. 

Go  into  a  store  before  you  read  the  next  lesson  and  see  if  you  can 
locate  an  item  of  goods  out  of  each  type  under  class  B.  Do  not  worry 
much  about  classification  A.  It  is  the  concern  of  the  store  executives 
not  the  salespeople.  Lesson  6  will  give  you  the  rules  for  class  C — the 
basis  of  personal  selling,  service  and  established  trade  in  stores. 

Bury  This  in  Your  Head: 

You  must  know  why  a  store  sells  certain  types  of  goods  before  you 
can  sell  them  yourself  intelligently  as  a  salesperson.  Every  kind  of 
goods  has  a  reason  behind  it.    You  must  learn  these  reasons. 


LESSON  XXI 
Learn  to  Make  Rules  for  Yourself 

CLASSIFICA/riONS  A  and  B  of  mercliandise  are  the  basis  respec- 
tively of  stocking  goods  in  a  store  and  of  catering  to  certain  wants 
represented  by  certain  goods. 

Classification  C  as  given  in  Study  Number  XVI  is  the  basis  of  sell- 
ing methods  of  the  store  salespeople  as  well  as  the  basis  of  growth  in 
volume  of  business  and  profit  for  any  retail  store.  Classification  C  of 
the  grouping  of  goods  has  to  do  with  the  attitude  of  people  who  use 
the  goods  after  it  is  bought.  It  is  the  user  of  the  goods,  you  know,  whose 
money  keeps  the  store  going.  If  people  did  not  make  use  of  the  goods 
they  buy  they  would  not  buy  the  second  time.  They  would  consider 
their  money  as  wasted. 

Classification  C,  Study  XVI,  deals  not  with  goods  but  its  use  after 
the  price  has  been  paid  for  it.  There  are  five  divisions  of  this  classifi- 
cation as  follows : 

1.  Personal-use  goods — the  kind  bought  for  the  exclusive  use  of 
one  individual  such  as  a  toothbrush,  a  suit  of  underwear,  hats,  shoes,  a 
razor,  a  bar  of  toilet  soap,  a  suit  of  clothes  or  other  garments  of  per- 
sonal apparel.  Personal-use  goods  are  goods  bought  for  an  individual, 
not  a  family  or  several  people. 

2.  Consumption  goods — the  kind  which  must  be  used  up,  destroyed 
in  a  sense,  before  the  benefit  is  received  from  them — food,  soap, 
matches,  chewing  gum,  candy,  soft  drinks,  coal,  gas,  electricity,  face 
cream,  talcum,  tooth  paste,  and  so  on.  Consumption  goods  may  be  per- 
sonal-use goods  or  several  other  types  but  they  are  not  consumption 
goods  unless  they  are  gradually  destroyed  in  giving  value  to  the  person 
who  bought  them.  To  get  the  five  cents  worth  out  of  candy  you  must 
eat  it,  destroy  it  in  a  sense;  but  to  get  the  benefit  out  of  a  $45  cook- 
stove  you  do  not  have  to  destroy  it,  you  only  need  to  use  it.  The  same 
with  a  suit  of  clothes,  an  automobile,  a  toothbrush  or  a  bath  sponge. 
Of  course,  the  latter  four  will  finally  wear  out  but  not  in  the  sense  of 
being  destroyed. 

Rules  IC  and  2C  are  the  same :  namely  that  personal-use  goods  and 
consumption  goods  form  the  basis  for  the  natural  growth  of  the  store's 
business,  the  store's  clientele — its  regular  list  of  customers.  If  a  cus- 
tomer once  becomes  interested  in  a  store's  personal-use  and  consump- 
tion goods  lines,  it  is  easy  to  get  return  or  repeat  sales  from  those  cus- 
tomers. They  cling  to  goods  of  this  type  which  they  have  once  used 
with  satisfaction. 

62 


LEARN  TO  MAKE  RULES  FOR  YOURSELF      63 

Rules  30  and  40,  family-use  and  household-use  goods  form  the  basis 
of  large  sales  and  an  established  trade  through  a  long  period  of  years 
— big  items  like  rugs,  furniture,  pictures,  china  sets,  table  silver,  flat- 
ware and  hollowware,  kitchen  and  laundry  utensils — things  whose 
terms  of  usefulness  are  long  relative  to  the  price  paid.  If  they  give 
satisfaction  the  store  can  expect  repeat  sales  because  families  and 
households  do  not  change  so  frequently  as  individuals,  the  users  of 
personal-use  and  consumption  goods.  Keep  in  mind,  however,  that 
the  latter  two  classes  of  buyers  (customers)  may  also  be  members 
of  families  of  households. 

Rules  50  and  60,  general-use  and  special-use  goods,  form  the  basis 
of  season  and  special  selling  the  same  as  30  and  40,  except  there  are 
fewer  items  of  goods  and  they  appeal  to  a  narrower  class  of  purchasers. 
Toys  are  special-use  goods,  so  are  electric  light  fixtures,  automobile  ac- 
cessories, sporting  goods ;  pictures  and  dishes  are  general-use  goods,  so 
are  window  screens,  awnings  and  hammocks.  Goods  in  these  two 
groups  help  the  sales  of  all  goods  in  all  other  departments. 

Study  the  chart  in  which  the  three  big  classifications  of  goods  A, 
B  and  0  are  shown  and  you  will  see  clearly  the  relations  of  each  to 
the  other  and  how  they  affect  retail  selling,  advertising,  window  dis- 
play and  interior  or  counter  display — technical  factors  in  selling  goods. 

Review  rules  given  in  studies  numbers  XVIII,  XIX  and  XX  and 
get  ready  for  six  studies  dealing  with  the  actual  selling  of  certain  items 
of  goods  selected  from  a  list  of  typical,  every-day  items  which  you  or 
some  member  of  your  family  buy  every  day  in  stores. 

Some  of  the  following  studies  will  show  how  to  select  selling  points 
for  three  items  of  each  type  of  goods  in  Olassification  B. 

This  Has  Made  Many  Merchants  Successful : 

The  thing  that  helps  a  salesman  sell  goods  to  a  customer  is  the 
same  as  the  thing  that  helps  the  customer  buy  from  a  salesman^ — the> 
point  of  vieiv  reversed  is  the  only  difference.  So,  really,  a  successful 
salesman  is  a  successful  customer  turned  "wrong  side  out,"  as  the  old 
saying  goes.  The  salesman  sells  the  thing  he  uses  himself  but  substi- 
tutes anotJier  person  for  the  buyer. 


LESSON  XXII 
Why  Do  Women  Buy  Gloves? 

IS  there  a  definite  principle  in  selling  gloves  at  retail?  There  is  if 
the  salesperson  wants  to  think  so.  And  she  can  better  please  her 
cnstomer  if  she  will  think  of  a  glove  as  serving  a  definite  purpose  in 
the  purchaser's  mind. 

** Purpose?"  You  may  say.  ''Why,  yes,  of  course,  the  customer 
buys  gloves  to  cover  her  hands.    That's  what  a  glove  is  for." 

Yes,  gloves  are  worn  on  the  hands  and  they  cover  the  hands.  But 
surely  they  mean  more  than  that  to  the  woman  who  is  ready  to  pay 
$3.50  to  $10  a  pair  for  them. 

When  a  customer  asks  for  gloves  think  of  gloves  as  an  important 
part  of  her  street  attire,  if  she  is  buying  street  gloves.  Think  of  what 
other  items  of  a  customer's  dress  mean.  Her  hat  is  the  characteristic 
element;  her  shoes  the  smart  element;  suit  or  costume  the  unifying 
element;  veil,  the  individual  element  and  gloves,  the  harmonizing 
element. 

Look  at  the  customer  in  terms  of  street  attire,  but  do  not  neces- 
sarily tell  her  you  are  so  viewing  her. 

When  she  begins  to  look  at  gloves  and  you  begin  to  fit  her,  other 
details  will  come  up:  the  material,  workmanship,  style,  finish,  color, 
buttons  or  snaps,  and  price.  These  are  details  of  the  gloves.  They 
have  little  to  do  with  the  customer's  reason  for  needing  a  pair  of 
gloves.  She  mil  buy  what  she  buys  with  one  main  thought  in  mind, 
''How  will  they  look  with  the  other  things  I  wear?"  If  the  customer 
thinks  this  the  saleswoman  ought  to  think  similarly  but  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  seller.  This  thing  is  ' '  Gloves  are  the  hannonizing  element 
of  a  woman's  attire."  (Men's  too  for  that  matter,  but  this  lesson  is 
based  on  selling  women's  gloves.) 

Why  is  it  necessary  for  the  saleswoman  to  think  anything!  Be- 
cause to  intelligently  serve  a  customer  the  salesperson  must  think  in 
terms  of  what  the  gloves  mean  to  the  purchaser.  Otherwise  the  sales- 
woman is  merely  an  automaton,  a  human  vending  machine  of  more 
hindrance  than  help  to  the  customer  in  getting  exactly  what  she  wants. 

A  woman  buys  gloves  with  a  definite  purpose  in  mind  and  she 
and  the  salesperson  ought  to  agree  on  the  purpose.  Other  details 
will  be  attended  to  naturally  in  the  course  of  making  the  sale.  She 
will  decide  on  the  style  and  color,  also  on  the  price.  The  fitting  is 
merely  part  of  the  process.  , 

64 


WHY   DO   WOMEN   BUY   GLOVES?  65 

To  be  a  good  saleswoman  study  stocks  and  style  and  keep  in  mind 
that  gloves  are  accessory  to  correct  dress  no  matter  what  the  price 
or  the  kind,  unless  they  are  work  gloves,  and  even  they  have  style. 

Good  selling  must  always  be  preceded  by  good  thinking.  Think 
of  the  gloves  as  something  the  customer  needs,  not  as  something  the 
store  wants  to  sell. 

Gloves  are  classified  as  necessities  so  far  as  dress  goes. 

The  next  study  will  be  on  how  to  sell  an  alarm  clock —  a  conve- 
nience commodity. 


LESSON  XXIII 
A   Rule   for    Selling   Convenience    Goods 

A  CUSTOMER  has  asked  to  see  alarm  clocks.  Does  he  want  it 
because  it  is  beautiful  or  costly?  No;  then  it  isn't  a  luxury- 
commodity.  Is  it  absolutely  imperative  that  he  have  an  alarm  clock? 
Hardly;  then  it  isn't  necessity  goods.  Is  it  useful?  Surely;  but  it 
isn't  bought  as  utility  goods  like  an  ice-chest  or  a  dishpan.  Why  does 
ihe  customer  want  it?  To  waken  him  at  a  special  time.  Then  he  is 
buying  it  because  it  supplies  him  with  mechanically  measured  sleep. 
It  is  a  convenience  commodity. 

He  is  buying  it  for  a  special  purpose.  Then  it  is  special-use  goods. 
Knowing  all  this,  the  salesman  can  act  intelligently  as  the  seller  of 
an  alarm  clock. 

What  the  Customer  Buys 

The  customer  may  want  a  small  alarm  clock  or  one  with  a  muffled 
bell  or  a  special  kind  of  dial,  while  you  have  in  stock  only  plain  alarm 
clocks.  Will  you  lose  the  sale  because  of  these  lacks?  Not  if  you 
fully  understand  the  kind  of  need  supplied  by  alarm  clocks.  No  matter 
what  different  kinds  there  are,  all  alarm  clocks  are  convenient.  They 
all  accomplish  the  same  purpose  in  addition  to  doing  what  a  regular 
clock  does — tell  time. 

You  Sell  What  the  Clock  Does 

So  point  out  to  your  customer  how  well  your  alarm  clock  serves  a 
convenience  purpose — wakens  the  sleeper  at  6 :30  a.  m.  if  set  for  that 
hour.  His  watch  will  register  6 :30  a.  m.,  so  will  the  family  clock,  but 
neither  has  a  device  for  awakening  the  sleeper.  The  alarm  clock  has. 
Impress  your  customer  with  the  things  any  alarm  clock  will  do  for 
him  and  feature  the  points  of  excellence  of  the  ones  you  have  in  stock. 
Do  not  sell  convenience  goods  as  goods.  Sell  what  they  will  do  for 
the  user  just  as  you  sold  gloves  for  what  they  mean  to  the  user.  There 
is  quite  a  difference  you  see.  A  glove  is  bought  for  what  it  means ;  an 
alarm  clock  for  what  it  does. 

In  the  next  study  you  will  see  how  to  sell  a  commodity  that  is 
bought  because  of  itself  not  because  of  what  it  means  or  does,  but 
because  of  what  it  is.  The  subject  will  be ''Men's  Underwear."  Study 
this  lesson  carefully,  it  will  teach  you  a  great  deal  about  how  to  sell 
staple  necessities  like  shoes,  socks,  underwear,  shirts,  and  other  items 
necessary  to  the  personal  wellbeing  of  everyone. 

66 


A  RULE  FOR  SELLING  CONVENIENCE  GOODS    67 

Underwear  is  classified  as  personal-use  goods  supplying  a  neces- 
sity want. 

You  should  try  to  think  up  other  groups  of  commodities  and  clas- 
sify them.  It  is  splendid  practice.  Think  how  ridiculous  it  would  be 
to  sell  a  glove  as  if  it  sei'ved  the  same  purpose  as  an  alarm  clock  or  a 
suit  of  underwear.  If  you  think  of  these  commodities  as  onlj^  something 
to  sell,  you  will  sell  veiy  few  of  them.  On  the  other  hand,  think  of 
them  in  terms  of  what  they  mean  to  the  customer  and  you'll  sell  many 
of  each  in  a  few  hours.  The  selling  is  the  same;  the  method  is  as 
different  as  are  the  uses  of  the  goods. 


LESSON  XXIV 

Woolen   Underwear   and  Alarm   Clocks  Are   Unlike 

IF  you  have  read  the  studies  on  the  selling  of  (1)  gloves  and  (2)  alarm 
clocks  you  will  remember  they  are  bought  for  what  they  mean  and 
what  they  do  respectively.  Of  course,  the  glove  does  something  just  as 
the  alarm  clock  does  something  else.  But  gloves  are  bought  because 
of  their  significance,  their  meaning,  to  the  wearer  while  the  alarm  clock 
is  bought  wholly  for  what  it  does,  not  what  it  is. 

NoAv  about  men's  underwear,  a  suit  of  woolen  underwear:  It  serves 
Qo  purpose  that  can  be  compared  to  the  gloves  or  the  alarm  clock.  It  is 
bought  by  the  customer  because  it  is  a  suit  of  woolen  underwear.  Like 
the  gloves,  it  is  a  covering ;  like  the  alarm  clock,  it  is  convenient.  But 
it  is  bought  by  the  customer  because  it  is  a  suit  of  underwear  and  for 
no  other  reason. 

Of  course,  the  purchaser  considers  several  points  in  buying  a  suit 
of  woolen  underAvear — ^warmth,  comfort,  weight,  fit,  style  of  buttoning 
and  other  details  of  workmanship.  He  will  tell  you  these  things  or 
let  you  suggest  them  to  him.  This  enables  you  to  show  him  the  nearest 
thing  in  stock  to  what  he  wants.  But  do  not  forget  that  as  an  item  of 
goods,  a  commodity,  the  underwear  is  bought  for  itself  as  a  suit  of 
underwear,  not  because  of  what  it  means  or  what  it  does. 

At  first  this  seems  like  a  hair-splitting  distinction,  but  it  is  not.  It 
is  a  basic  fact  and  if  you  keep  it  in  mind  you  can  sell  more  underwear 
of  the  kinds  in  your  stock  and  customers  will  like  your  service  better 
than  if  you  think  of  underwear  in  the  wrong  way  or  not  at  all. 

There  are  many  types  of  goods  so  far  as  the  Mnd  of  needs  they 
supply:  necessity  goods,  utility  goods,  convenience  goods,  luxury 
goods,  impulse  goods,  personal  identity  goods.  Underwear  has  slight 
elements  of  all  of  these  except  the  last  but  it  is  primarily  necessity 
goods  bought  for  itself  alone. 

You  have  had  a  study  on  gloves — ^necessity  goods  with  a  style 
element;  alarm  clocks — convenience  goods  purely  and  simply;  under- 
wear, necessity  goods  of  a  staple  nature.  The  lesson  considers  utility 
goods  so-called  because  their  usefulness  is  their  main  selling  point. 
Study  this  lesson.  It  is  one  of  the  most  important  because  of  the  wide 
range  of  goods  classified  under  it. 


68 


LESSON  XXV 

Advertising  Is  a  Special  Kind  of  Selling 

Tj^VERYBODY  studies  advertising  more  or  less.  And  not  all  study 
-t->  it  expecting  to  follow  it  as  a  profession.  The  general  public  is 
interested  in  advertising  and  they  study  it  because  it  is  the  most  human 
of  all  the  factors  in  the  retail  business.  And  retail  business  affects  the 
life  of  every  civilized  person  in  one  way  or  another. 

Advertising  reduced  to  the  simplest  term  is  a  message,  a  story  or 
news  of  something  needed  or  wanted  by  someone.  This  message  tells 
the  story  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  nature,  use,  cost,  kind  and  price  of  a 
piece  of  goods  or  a  service;  on  the  other  hand  is  the  reflection  of  the 
human  mind.  No  one  would  buy  or  use  goods  he  is  not  interested  in. 
Either  his  interest  is  natural  or  it  is  created.  In  either  case  advertising 
arouses  this  interest  through  a  human  appeal  based  on  the  goods  and 
the  customer's  need  for  goods. 

So,  to  be  an  advertising  man  or  woman  or  a  salesman  you  must 
begin  to  do  two  things : 

(1)  Study  goods  and  their  uses.  (2)  Study  people  and  their  needs. 
These  are  put  first  because  they  form  the  basis  of  good  copy — the 
written  or  printed  form  of  the  message.  But  there  are  many  more 
things  to  do  to  become  an  advertising  person.  These  will  be  brought 
out  in  the  proper  order. 

Before  we  start  let  us  take  a  general  look  at  the  subject  of  adver- 
tising. It  is  a  broad  subject.  There  are  three  general  considerations 
which  you  need  to  appreciate  now.  The  Study  of  advertising  embraces : 
(1)  WTiat  advertising  is,  (2)  What  it  does  and  (3)  How  it  does  it. 
This  course  of  lessons  will  deal  almost  entirely  with  the  third  considera- 
tion— how  advertising  works.  The  other  two  phases  will  unfold  nat- 
urally as  the  third  is  developed.  However,  here  are  the  answers  to  the 
first  two  considerations — ^What  advertising  is  and  What  it  does :  (1)  Ad- 
vertising is  a  creative  force  applied  to  the  sale  of  goods.  (2)  It  gives 
information  about  what  a  firm  has  to  sell,  the  nature  and  use  of  that 
commodity  and  where  and  at  what  price  it  may  be  obtained. 

The  idea  once  existed  that  advertising  was  a  mysterious  force  such 
as  electricity  or  the  wind.  It  is  nothing  like  either  of  these  except  that 
all  three  are  forms  of  force.  The  first  two  are  physical  and  mysterious, 
but  advertising  is  a  mental  force  and  everything  else  but  mysterious. 
It  is  clear  and  simple  rather  than  obscure  and  complex.  It  conveys  your 
ideas  about  something  to  the  mind  of  someone  who  ought  to  be  inter- 

69 


70  RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 

ested  in  the  thing  you  have  written  about  or  want  to  sell.  Advertising 
gets  its  force  from  the  fact  that  it  is  the  point  of  contact  between  two 
minds  regarding  a  subject — usually  merchandise — of  mutual  interest. 

Read  an  advertisement  about  shoes  in  a  magazine  or  a  newspaper 
between  this  and  the  next  lesson  because  in  that  one  you  will  be  told 
how  a  shoe  advertisement  is  written  and  you  will  be  shown  how  to 
analyze  the  elements  in  the  advertisement.  They  are  like  the  selling 
points  but  expressed  differently. 


LESSON  XXVI 

Advertising  Copy  Is  Full  of  Salesmanship 

WHEN  your  merchandise  message,  your  story  of  the  goods,  is 
ready  for  the  customer  to  read  it  is  called  copy.  This  is  the 
term  used  to  designate  the  news  story  the  reporter  writes  for  his 
paper.  But  there  is  a  vast  difference  between  the  writing  of  news- 
story  copy  and  advertising  copy  because  the  subject  of  each  is  quite 
different.  The  news  writer  bases  his  story  on  an  event  and  its  rela- 
tion to  human  beings  specifically  or  in  general.  The  advertising  copy- 
writer takes  goods,  not  people  or  events,  as  his  theme.  He  directs 
his  story  to  people  just  as  the  news  writer  does  but  his  theme  is  not 
about  people  or  events  but  about  goods,  their  use  and  value. 

Basis    for    Good    Shoe    Copy 

Shoes  are  necessity  goods,  at  least  ordinary  shoes  are,  and  are 
bought  purely  for  use.  Beauty  and  other  characteristics  are  sec- 
ondary. Because  of  this  your  advertising  appeal  to  the  customer 
should  be  based  on  the  nature  rather  than  the  use  of  the  goods. 
Your  copy  should  create  interest  in  the  merchandise  itself.  In  some 
lines  of  goods  copy  must  create  interest  not  in  the  goods  as  goods,  but 
in  the  idea  back  of  it.  The  alarm  clock  is  such  an  article.  No  one 
buys  an  alarm  clock  for  itself.  They  buy  it  for  what  it  will  do  for 
thein.  It  saves  mental  energy.  It  watches  for  the  waking  hour  so  the 
sleeper  does  not  have  to  waste  subconscious  energy  in  doing  it.  So 
customers  buy  what  an  alarm  clock  does  rather  than  what  it  is.  If 
that  is  what  the  customer  buys  it  furnishes  the  theme  for  the  copy  to 
interest  him. 

A  shoe  on  the  other  hand  is  bought  because  it  is  a  shoe.  That 
is  why  it  should  be  advertised  as  a  shoe  rather  than  as  something 
that  will  do  something  special.  It  will  not  do  anything  special  but 
it  is  something  special.  Quite  a  difference  you  see  between  the  alarm 
clock  and  the  shoes. 

Ideas   Give   Copy  Life 

Now  where  does  the  material  for  shoe  copy  come  from?  The 
material  for  the  little  story  that  is  to  interest  customers  and  make 
them  buy  shoes?  The  material  comes  from  three  sources:  (1)  the 
customer's  mind,  (2)  the  shoe  itself,  and  (3)  the  need  the  shoe  supplies. 
A  shoe  customer  buys  a  shoe  because  it  is  well  made,  good  looking, 
comfortable  and  because  she  must  have  shoes  to  cover  her  feet.    The 

71 


72  RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND    SELLING 

last  reason  furnishes  no  material  for  shoe  copy.  It  is  too  obvious. 
But  the  other  two  reasons  furnish  what  is  known  as  the  copy  angle 
or  appeal. 

Put  into  your  shoe  copy  a  headline  which  attracts  the  eye  and 
holds  the  attention.  Get  this  headline  out  of  the  three  reasons  a  shoe 
interests  a  prospective  customer — looks,  good  workmanship,  comfort. 
Then  write  about  80  words  telling  how  the  shoe  looks,  why  it  is  a  good 
shoe  and  why  customers  should  buy  well  made  shoes  that  are  com- 
fortable and  good  looking. 

Put  in  a  few  words  about  the  kind  of  leather,  the  color,  whether 
lace  or  button,  high  or  low,  for  every  day  or  dress  wear,  and  the 
price.  This  will  be  a  shoe  advertisement  provided  it  has  five  things 
in  it  which  every  complete  advertisement  must  contain.  These  are 
in  order:  (1)  an  idea,  (2)  external  interest,  (3)  merchandise  interest, 
(4)  correct  angle,  (5)  accurate  viewpoint. 

Angle  and  Viewpoint 

The  last  thing  copy  does  to  the  reader's  mind  is  to  leave  a  familiar 
mental  taste  there.  When  a  man  reads  an  advertisement  which  speaks 
his  language,  the  angle  is  accurate.  Otherwise  the  cop^n^^riter's  work 
goes  for  naught.  When  an  advertisement  tells  a  reader  about  the 
value,  the  use  or  the  nature  of  a  commodity  in  terms  of  that  commodity 
and  not  some  other  piece  of  goods,  the  viewpoint  is  correct. 

These  two  considerations — angle  and  viewpoint — express  the  com- 
bined effect  of  how  the  copy  idea  reaches  the  reader's  mind  and  the 
effect  after  it  has  reached  it.  They  are  not  physically  apparent  in 
the  advertisement,  the  way  headline  and  cuts  (pictures)  are,  but  they 
are  part  of  the  effect  of  the  copy.  If  the  idea  is  good,  the  external 
and  merchandise  interest  are  clear,  angle  and  viewpoint  will  be  accu- 
rate and  correct.  These  will  be  mentioned  again  many  times  as  the 
lessons  progress. 


LESSON  XXVII 
There  Are   Five   Elements   in  Advertising   Copy 

APIECE  of  advertising  copy  should  do  five  distinct  things. 
First,  attract  attention  to  itself  as  copy — that  is,  be  interesting 
aside  from  its  subject. 

Second,  create  general  interest  in  the  subject  advertised  to  such 
an  extent  that  the  reader  of  the  first  advertisement  thinks  of  reading 
a  second  one  on  the  same  subject. 

Third,  tell  something  definite  about  the  goods — ^its  use,  workman- 
ship, quality,  color,  weight,  price  and  so  on. 

Fourth,  it  should  be  so  worded  that  the  logical  user  of  the  goods 
will  be  interested  in  what  the  copy  says  about  the  goods.  This  is  what 
is  called  copy  angle,  meaning  right  direction  of  appeal. 

Fifth,  the  copy  must  reflect  something  of  the  natural  viewpoint, 
turn  of  mind,  of  the  class  of  individual  to  whom  it  is  directed. 

Technical    Points    Defined 

How  to  get  the  vital  points  of  interest  into  copy!  That  is  the 
ambitious  copywriter's  first  thought.  How  to  make  it.  catch  and  hold 
the  reader's  interest !  In  short,  how  to  put  a  definite  idea  into  a  story  is 
his  problem.  An  idea  gives  life  to  dead  facts  the  way  a  lighted  match 
illuminates  a  dark  corner  in  a  cellar,  or  better  still  the  way  yeast  livens 
the  other  ingredients  in  light  bread.  Ideas  are  not  things;  they  are 
intangible,  except  in  effect.  They  are  vie^vpoint  concentrated  into 
verbal  form.  They  may  appear  as  a  slogan  or  phrase,  a  certain  text 
treatment  or  form  of  argument.  Whenever  you  tell  an  old  story  in  a 
new  way  you  are  using  an  idea.  If  you  set  your  hat  at  a  different  angle 
or  lace  your  shoes  a  new  way  you  express  an  idea.  In  advertisements 
the  idea  expresses  itself  as  a  new  viewpoint.  For  example,  everyone 
knows  that  an  alarm  clock  makes  a  noise  when  the  alarm  rings  at  six 
A.  M.  But  that  would  be  a  poor  appeal  in  copy.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
you  tell  your  reader  something  interesting  about  getting  up  early 
rather  than  how  an  alarm  clock  gets  him  up,  you  will  win  his  interest. 
He  forgets  the  alarm  and  thinks  of  how  helpful  it  is.  An  idea  is  a 
viewpoint  regarding  the  thing  the  copy  is  about. 

External   Interest 

External  interest  is  what  you  say  to  extend  the  customer's  in- 
terest in  the  commodity  beyond  the  mere  detail  of  how  it  is  made 

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74  RETAIL   ADVERTISING   AND   SELLING 

or  what  it  is  used  for.  External  interest  puts  a  colorful  cloak  on  the 
bare  merchandise-facts  pertaining  to  the  goods.  For  instance,  when 
you  read  a  certain  advertisement  for  a  certain  famous  toilet  soap,  over 
half  the  copy  is  about  how  the  ancient  Egyptians  bathed,  the  picture 
in  the  advertisement  alwaj'-s  depicts  a  beautiful  Egyptian  princess 
and  a  scene  from  the  early  history  of  Egypt.  That  is  external  interest. 
It  is  about  soap,  but  not  directly.  In  the  same  advertisement  there  is 
a  short  paragraph  about  the  soap  itself — how  it  looks,  how  it  acts  in 
water  and  on  the  skin  and  what  it  is  made  of.  This  last  paragraph  is 
merchandise  interest.  Together  external  interest  and  merchandise  in- 
terest give  copy  its  attention  and  information  value.  The  first  makes 
the  subject  of  soap  interesting,  the  second  makes  it  tangible,  helps  the 
reader  digest  it  mentally. 

Young  copy^vriters  and  salesmen  should  begin  early  to  develop 
the  ability  to  clothe  bare  facts  in  interesting  raiment.  Begin  by  analyz- 
ing current  advertising  copy  in  newspaper  and  magazine  advertise- 
ments. Most  of  such  copy  is  good,  otherwise  leading  firms  would  not 
run  it  in  expensive  space. 


LESSON  XXVIII 

Personality  Is  the  Life  of  Advertisements 

EVERY  advertisement  written  has  back  of  it  the  individual  interest 
of  the  man  or  firm  whose  money  pays  the  advertising  bill.  If  I 
advertise  shoes  in  this  morning's  paper  I  want  the  advertisement  to 
bring  people  into  my  shoe  department  not  into  yours.  If  you  adver- 
tise your  soap  in  the  magazines  you  want  the  advertisement  to  create  a 
demand  for  your  soap,  not  the  soap  of  some  other  advertiser. 

|To  assure  that  an  advertisement  creates  individualized  interest 
rather  than  general  interest,  there  are  two  definite  elements  of 
technique  (method)  to  apply  to  all  copy:  (1)  Give  the  copy  an  in- 
dividual slant ;  that  is,  be  sure  it  has  in  it  a  decided  element  of  interest. 
(2)  Reflect  a  special  attitude  toward  the  nature  of  the  goods;  that  is, 
ascribe  to  it  in  your  copy  a  character  or  personality  aside  from  its 
nature  as  a  shoe  or  hat  or  fountain  pen.  There  are  many  different 
hats,  shoes  and  fountain  pens,  you  know,  all  used  for  the  same  purpose 
yours  are  put  to  once  the  customer  buys  them.  But  you  want  to  sell 
your  goods,  not  the  other  fellow's. 

Degrees   of   Personality  in   Goods 

Some  lines  of  goods  like  some  people  have  more  inherent  per- 
sonality than  others.  A  talking  machine  or  an  oriental  rug  has  more 
personality  than  a  shoe  or  a  fountain  pen.  So  when  you  write  copy 
for  shoes  or  fountain  pens  you  must  create  a  vivid  personality  for  the 
commodity,  or  at  least  you  must  magnify  to  proper  intensity  whatever 
personality  it  has.  Copy  for  a  talking  machine  can  be  largely  devoted 
to  the  merchandise  nature  of  the  goods  because  the  commodity  itself 
has  natural  interest.  Not  so  a  shoe.  It  is  commonplace  and  ordinary 
in  the  scale  of  merchandise,  a  commodity  as  unromantic  and  as  prosaic 
as  a  doormat  or  a  pair  of  woolen  socks. 

The  copy  writer  must  put  more  external  interest  and  not  so  much 
merchandise  interest  into  his  copy  if  he  is  to  attract  and  hold  the  atten- 
tion of  the  casual  reader.    He  must  make  the  shoe  interesting  as  a  shoe. 

How    to    Gauge   Degree    of    Interest 

Careful  thinking  should  precede  the  writing  of  a  piece  of  copy. 
Ask  yourself  what  needs  to  be  said  about  the  commodity  which  the 
possible  user  does  not  already  know  or  think  about  it.    Also  how  to 

75 


76  : -l^ETAIL'  ADVJERTISING   AND   SELLING 

include  what' he' <?()i5i?' think  for  that  is  just  as  necessary  as  new  view- 
point. 

First,  consider  this  about  the  shoe:  little  choice  is  required  in 
selecting  it;  selection  is  effected  mostly  by  habit  and  taste;  appeal  to 
practical  sense  rather  than  emotion;  price  and  final  use  of  shoe  are 
important  factors;  a  shoe  is  utility  merchandise. 

These  points  plainly  show  that  plenty  of  external  interest  will 
be  needed,  that  the  central  advertising  idea  or  thought  should  be  drawn 
from  the  nature  of  the  goods  rather  than  from  its  use;  merchandise 
points  should  be  intermixed  with  external  interest.  In  other  words, 
make  the  reader  see  shoes  in  a  new  and  interesting  light,  at  the  same 
time  pointing  out  the  material  advantages  of  the  particular  kind  and 
class  of  shoes  you  are  advertising. 


LESSON  XXIX 

Every   Item  of   Goods   Has   Five  Values 

BEFORE  going  further  with  the  technique  of  copy  let  us  learn  an 
important  thing  about  value — the  value  of  goods.  Value  is  not 
used  here  in  the  sense  of  so  much  quality  for  the  price,  but  in  the 
abstract  sense. 

Every  piece  of  goods,  every  commodity  rather,  that  is  ready  to 
sell  to  the  consumer  and  ready  to  be  used  by  him  has  five  kinds  of  value. 

Take  a  man's  hat  for  example.  The  manufacturer  puts  a  certain 
value  into  it.  He  puts  into  it  raw  material,  labor,  the  skill  of  the 
designer  and  the  cost  of  operating  hat-making  machinery. 

This  gives  the  hat  (1)  intrinsic  value,  meaning  the  value  which 
comes  from  the  making  of  the  hat.  This  value  is  only  indirectly  of 
interest  to  the  future  wearer  of  the  hat.  Intrinsic  value  is  the  only 
value  hats  have  while  they  are  still  in  the  factory  or  warehouse  of  the 
maker. 

But  a  retail  store  buys  some  of  the  hats  from  the  manufacturer 
and  places  them  in  the  stocks  of  his  hat  department.  Immediately  these 
hats  take  on  value  of  a  new  kind,  (2)  merchandise  value.  In  other 
words,  they  have  become  a  part  of  a  store's  stocks. 

Up  to  this  point  no  customer  has  wanted  the  hats  because  no  cus- 
tomers have  seen  them.  They  have  then  only  two  kinds  of  value — 
intrinsic  and  merchandise  value. 

Where   Advertising  Combines  with  Selling 

Now  a  man  comes  into  the  department  and  is  attracted  to  these 
hats.  He  asks  to  be  sho^vn  one,  or  the  sales  clerk  shows  him  one,  and 
begins  to  point  out  the  merits  of  the  hat — style,  shape,  quality,  weight, 
color,  trimmings.  Everything  the  manufacturer  put  into  them.  In- 
trinsic value  becomes  (3)  sales  value — the  third  kind  of  value  a  man's 
hat  has.  This  amounts  to  nothing  else  than  intrinsic  value  being  trans- 
lated into  terms  of  the  customer's  wants  through  the  skill  of  the  sales 
clerk.  Merchandise  gets  its  sales  value  from  the  way  it  supplies  his 
wants.  Between  what  he  thinks  and  what  the  sales  clerk  suggests  the 
goods  take  on  new  interest,  an  interest  based  on  what  the  maker  put 
into  the  hat  and  what  the  customer  expects  to  get  out  of  it. 

Parallel  with  sales  value  but  by  means  of  printed  matter  rather 
than  the  sales  clerk's  talk,  the  hat  takes  on  another  kind  of  value,  (4) 
advertising  value. 

77 


78  ■   •RETAIL-  ApYERTISING   AND    SELLING 

Th'er 'a'd-^ertising  value  and  the  sales  (selling)  value  of  a  hat  is  the 
same  in  a  sense,  they  only  vary  in  presentation  in  the  same  goods.  Of 
course,  these  values  are  different  in  different  commodities,  but  their 
origin  is  the  same. 

The  Important  Value 

After  the  customer  buys  a  hat  and  begins  to  wear  it,  a  new  kind 
of  value  comes  to  light.  This  is  known  as  (5)  use-value.  It  is  meas- 
ured entirely  by  the  satisfaction  the  wearer  gets  out  of  it.  After  a  man 
has  worn  a  $5.00  hat  for  three  months  he  might  refuse  to  part  with  it 
for  a  much  greater  amount.  Why?  Because  it  has  become  a  part  of 
his  personality  in  a  way.  It  fits,  looks  good,  wears  well;  in  short,  it 
suits  him.  It  is  his  hat.  It  does  everything  for  him  that  any  good  hat 
should  do. 

How  does  use-value  come  into  advertising,  you  may  ask.  Because 
it  balances  up  with  what  advertising  claimed  for  the  hat. 

A  store  that  sells  good  goods,  advertising  them  accurately  and  in- 
terestingly, holds  its  trade  by  virtue  of  the  use-value  of  its  goods.  The 
best  advertising  in  the  world  is  wasted  if  the  goods  it  makes  the  cus- 
tomer want  are  unsatisfactory  after  he  gets  them. 


LESSON  XXX 

Direct   Your    Efforts    Accurately 

THE  five  technical  considerations  in  good  copy  are:  (1)  Ideas, 
(2)  external  interest,  (3)  merchandise  interest,  (4)  angle,  and 
(5)  viewpoint.  If  these  things  are  in  copy  it  is  likely  to  be  good  copy, 
interesting,  suited  to  the  goods  and  informative  as  well  as  stimulative. 

Merchandise  ready  to  sell  and  use  has  five  kinds  of  value :  (1)  In- 
trinsic-value, (2)  merchandise-value,  (3)  sales-value,  (4)  advertising- 
value,  and  (5)  use-value. 

These  two  sets  of  principles  are  aids  in  studying  where  to  get 
advertising  subject  matter  for  copy  and  how  to  present  it  in  terms 
of  the  reader's  interest.  It  is  from  the  five  kinds  of  value  that  the 
subject  matter  is  drawn;  it  is  from  the  technique  group  that  method 
(how  to  do  it)  is  drawn. 

Getting    the    Copy    Angle 

If  you  understand  these  two  simple  sets  of  tools — they  are  nothing 
more  than  mental  appliances — ^you  can  reduce  any  piece  of  merchandise 
to  advertising  subject  matter  and  then  get  it  into  readable  form.  To 
get  your  material  into  shape  you  must  analyze  the  commodity,  get  its 
values  into  words.  Here  is  an  example :  You  are  given  a  certain  type 
of  men's  shoe  to  advertise.  At  first  it  seems  that  there  is  nothing 
interesting  to  say  about  it.  ' '  It  is  nothing  but  a  shoe.  Everyone  knows 
all  about  a  shoe, ' '  you  say.  But  let  us  analyze  it  according  to  the  five 
values. 

(1)  Intrinsic-value:  Good  leather,  tanned  by  the  best  process, 
black  in  color;  lace  shoe,  short  vamp,  sensible  heel  made  of  leather,  kid 
tops,  bronze  eyelets,  custom  design  giving  a  smart,  made-to-order  look. 

(2)  Merchandise-value:  To  be  sold  in  better  shops,  medium  priced 
goods;  standard  quality;  full  line  of  sizes  for  men;  spring  weight; 
exclusive  patterns  (carried  by  only  one  store  in  town) ;  high  and  low 
cut. 

(3)  Sales-value:  Meets  requirements  of  ordinary  man  of  good 
taste;  in  keeping  with  trend  of  styles  in  men's  clothing — conservative; 
polishes  well,  holds  its  shape ;  comfortable  last  on  smart  lines. 

(4)  Advertising -value:  Same  as  sales-value,  except  that  leading 
selling  point  should  be  featured  more  than  the  use  or  purpose  of  the 
commodity ;  viz.,  a  shoe,  of  course,  but  sold  on  basis  of  smart  style. 

(5)  Use-value:    A  shoe  that  will  look  good  when  it  is  old ;  wear- 

79 


80  RETAIL  ADVERTISING   AND   SELLING 

ing  quality  and  appearance  up  to  expectation  of  most  capricious  pur- 
chaser ;  comfortable  at  six  months  if  properly  cared  for ;  made  to  wear 
rather  than  to  sell. 

There  is  the  detailed  material  drawn  from  all  phases  of  the  shoe 's 
purpose  and  nature.    Now,  apply  the  technique  terms  of  copy  writing. 

Two   Sets   of   Principles   Combined 

Get  an  idea  first.  This  may  be  drawn  from  any  one  of  the  five 
groups.  The  safest  way  is  to  draw  the  idea — the  basis  of  copy  appeal 
— from  the  nature  of  the  commodity.  A  shoe  is  bought  for  what  it  is 
rather  than  what  it  does,  as  was  shown  in  study  II. 

That  being  the  case,  look  for  an  idea  under  the  heading  of  Intrinsic- 
value. 

Leather  of  quality  is  the  most  promising  of  the  points  enumerated 
there.  So  base  your  idea  on  that  for  a  trial.  Now  what  would  attract 
the  customer's  attention  along  the  line  of  leather?  How  is  this :  ''Good 
leather  is  the  beginning  of  a  good  shoe. ' '  If  that  sounds  all  right,  use 
it  for  the  caption  and  as  the  main  argument.    Like  this : 

''Good  Leatjier  in  a  Medium  Price  Shoe" 

"If  we  made  a  $25.00  shoe  we  would  use  the  same  leather 
used  in  this  one  which  we  sell  at  $9.50.  Good  leather  properly 
tanned  and  finished  is  the  beginning  of  shoes  of  quality,  no 
matter  what  the  price.  A  shoe  may  be  ever  so  smart  in  design 
and  shapely  in  last;  it  may  be  ever  so  cleverly  finished  and 
even  well  sewn,  but  if  the  leather  is  faulty  the  final  quality  is 
missing.  The  shoe  wears  out  quickly,  loses  its  shape  and  is 
generally  unsatisfactory. 

''Come  in  and  see  our  Business  Men's  Special.  It  is  smart 
in  design,  carefully  made  and  comes  in  the  newest  sensible 
lasts,  low  heel,  all  leather;  welt-sewed  and  finished  by  hand. 
And  all-leather  throughout — good  leather!    Price  $9.50." 

This  is  a  short  advertisement  suitable  for  running  in  local  news- 
papers to  interest  people  in  the  shoes  of  a  local  dealer.  It  could  be 
improved;  you  could  improve  it,  but  all  the  needed  appeal  is  there. 


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